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Re: OR v. CA
Author: mook
Date: 08-13-2013 - 12:39
You *are* grasping at straws ... but a few points on taxes:
California actually has a nearly flat tax if you're single. It's progressive up to a $46766 income, then it's a flat 9.3% (less than OR's) up to $1 million. Those over $1m get to pay the top 10.3% rate. So the vast majority of single people with more than the median income pay 9.3%. Married, of course, goes up much higher before flattening out, so if you have a partner who qualifies you for that status you don't hit 9.3% until $93532 - quite a few middle class and lower working folk pay less.
OR income tax is actually higher than CA - the map is old. And the top tax rate (11%) hits at $125K single/$250K married rather than $1m.
[www.tax-brackets.org] (2013 version; and others from the left column)
What kills you in CA is the combination of high income tax (starting at a relatively low income for singles) AND high sales tax. OR has comparable income tax to CA (not counting those millionaires), but no sales tax. OR does have high property taxes, which are kept somewhat under control in CA by Prop 13, and if they are still like my last visit there the gas tax isn't tiny either. Overall, I suspect that lower-income (below $50K or so) people in OR are slightly better off because of no sales tax, which hits them disproportionately in CA, but if they own property (maybe inherited - can't afford to buy it) the property tax probably makes up for it. In all, OR's tax structure seems designed to extract money from working and property-owning people, while CA's (despite all the crying in the press and the think tanks) actually spreads the hurt around a little more.
What this has to do with railfanning I have no idea, but these are Just the Facts.
California actually has a nearly flat tax if you're single. It's progressive up to a $46766 income, then it's a flat 9.3% (less than OR's) up to $1 million. Those over $1m get to pay the top 10.3% rate. So the vast majority of single people with more than the median income pay 9.3%. Married, of course, goes up much higher before flattening out, so if you have a partner who qualifies you for that status you don't hit 9.3% until $93532 - quite a few middle class and lower working folk pay less.
OR income tax is actually higher than CA - the map is old. And the top tax rate (11%) hits at $125K single/$250K married rather than $1m.
[www.tax-brackets.org] (2013 version; and others from the left column)
What kills you in CA is the combination of high income tax (starting at a relatively low income for singles) AND high sales tax. OR has comparable income tax to CA (not counting those millionaires), but no sales tax. OR does have high property taxes, which are kept somewhat under control in CA by Prop 13, and if they are still like my last visit there the gas tax isn't tiny either. Overall, I suspect that lower-income (below $50K or so) people in OR are slightly better off because of no sales tax, which hits them disproportionately in CA, but if they own property (maybe inherited - can't afford to buy it) the property tax probably makes up for it. In all, OR's tax structure seems designed to extract money from working and property-owning people, while CA's (despite all the crying in the press and the think tanks) actually spreads the hurt around a little more.
What this has to do with railfanning I have no idea, but these are Just the Facts.
