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April 26, 2007
You Must Remember This
by Tina Grazier
The next time a democrat, or a talking head on TV, spouts that old, tired, worn-out line about the rich not “giving their fair share” remember this:
As the Dow Jones industrials broke the 13,000 barrier for the first time Wednesday, analysts said the California state treasury might be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the resurgent stock market.
At the peak of the dot-com boom, in 2000-01, taxes on capital gains and stock options accounted for nearly 25 percent of the general fund.
Even in quieter times, a single stock deal can ripple through the state budget, as when several Google Inc. insiders sold billions of dollars worth of Google stock in 2005, generating hundreds of millions of dollars worth of capital gains tax payments to the state the following year.
California relies on personal income tax more than most states, and its unusually progressive brackets, with a top rate of 9.3 percent, mean much of the burden is placed on the wealthy.
In 2004 the top 13 percent of Californians -- those with incomes of $100,000 or more -- paid 80 percent of the state's personal income tax, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.
Excerpts from Sacbee.com article “Budget rides market wave” by Dale Kasler
Posted by Post Scripts at April 26, 2007 11:00 PM