The perils of a mono-party

 
 

Dave Johnson, SVGOP chair scans California and sees "an economic model of failure."

California citizens are not a piggy bank. Any of us. I'm a small business owner. I'm getting impacted regularly by rising costs, from payroll taxes to the cost of materials, City permit fees, codes and a never-ending stream of regulations that impact the cost of doing business.

People are voting with their feet. They're leaving, and the people that are backfilling those positions can't afford a house and can't afford to live here, because affordable housing is not really affordable.

And the taxes are going to keep going up. You're going to lose the upper end of your revenue stream, and your solution is to raise taxes continuously. It doesn't work. It's an economic model of failure.

If we start with "where does the money go?" and install a real-time tracking system of EVERY State expenditure, audits on all bills and install REAL financial transparency, we will soon find that we have a $50 billion surplus. Use that money to pay for social programs and infrastructure projects. Raising taxes (again) spells doom for California and its citizens, regardless of their political leanings (unless the goal is a socialist State).--Dave Johnson, Chair, SVGOP

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Kalm: The Mono-party feels no need to economize

The biggest issue in California is affordability. This includes the price of homes, gas, groceries, medical care and necessities, but it also includes the impact of taxes. We work hard all year long only to give so much to the government. Most people know they could use their own money more wisely.

The demand to raise sales tax is of immediate concern, especially as the state has managed to exceed its own constitutional limits of no more than 2% over the state rate of 7.25%. 

In so many cases, the demands are driven by government unions, greedy to get more money. This is true as well of RTM, known as the BART tax. For many, BART is already too expensive and they blew through so much money while cutting services during Covid.

Our state government is a too big, too unwieldy mono-party which feels no need to economize or even audit themselves. Time to cut government, taxes and regulations; only then will California survive let alone become the Golden State again.--Denise Kalm, CoCo Tax VP

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{Johnson's and Kalm's comments are part of our exclusive Election Themes series, in which our contributors are taking the Long View of the 2026 election. Perspectives--we guarantee--you won't read anywhere else. Check out the whole series at: www.opportunitynowsv.org.}

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christopher escher