California Megathread: Best State

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > California Megathread: Best State

redscare: Aug 14, 2003

Willa Rogers posted:

Coming from Chicago I have to say the greatest culinary dearth in L.A. is Greek food. Yah, there's that fancy-pants place on Westwood Blvd, but I've yet to find a basic great gyro sandwich with the right sauce and fresh pita.

George's down here in Long Beach is pretty ace, have you tried it?

What LA is really lacking in is Middle Eastern food. I don't know how, but it is (this is supported by my boss' Lebanese wife). It's also one of the few reasons to go to Detroit.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 03:29

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# ? May 14, 2024 14:34

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Here's a little something I was wondering: how well-represented are the non-latino immigrant communities in California?

For that matter, who are they? Japanese? Chinese? I noticed a ton of Armenians where I used to live but I think they're pretty thin on the ground once you get away from the westerly parts of LA county.

Well, there's this article from a few months back about how Asians are now the largest immigrant group in SoCal. Many cities in the San Gabriel Valley (Arcadia, Diamond Bar, Temple City, San Marino, Rowland Heights, Alhambra, Monterey Park, etc.) are all majority Asian now, if I recall correctly, and that's not getting into Little Saigon in Orange County.

California also (unsurprisingly) has the lower 48's most heavily-Asian district, which includes Fremont, Newark, Milpitas (part of the Bay's Little Saigon), Cupertino, Santa Clara, and parts of San Jose, represented by Mike Honda. It's almost majority-Asian, in fact. When I'm in the Tri-Valley (especially Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon), I see a lot more Asian faces and supermarkets around now than I did when I first visited the area in 1999.

...on another note, I was running some stats about California's cities in presidential elections; Garden Grove voted for Bush by 23.4 points in 2004, but then went much more narrowly for McCain in 2008 and then flipped to Obama by 9.5 points in 2012.

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Aug 7, 2013

# ? Aug 7, 2013 03:36

404notfound: Mar 5, 2006; stop staring at me

There was a story a few months ago too about how half of the bay area's tech jobs are now filled by Asians. I only know this because the station was filming at my company and I got a few seconds of screen time :v:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/8858446-asians-now-half-of-bay-area-tech-workforce/

# ? Aug 7, 2013 03:46

CrazyLittle: Sep 11, 2001; Clapping Larry

Jerry Manderbilt posted:

Man, almost all of the sushi bars and Japanese restaurants I've eaten at in the East Bay and around UCI have been Chinese or Korean-owned.

I could spend all day eating in Little Tokyo, though.

Go to Sushi Sho in El Cerrito.

Xandu posted:

I will close this thread if you guys start discussing food again.

(sorry!)

# ? Aug 7, 2013 04:47

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Fremont has a big Afghan community.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 04:50

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

FMguru posted:

Fremont has a big Afghan community.

Yeah, a part of Centerville is nicknamed "Little Kabul" and our Central Park appears in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 04:56

Armyman25: Sep 6, 2005

Can someone give me a good summary of California's financial status? Are the taxes high compared to the rest of the country, has the state balanced its budget?

# ? Aug 7, 2013 06:24

nm: Jan 28, 2008; "I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Ho Chi Mint posted:

Can someone give me a good summary of California's financial status? Are the taxes high compared to the rest of the country, has the state balanced its budget?

Depends. We have a somewhat higher than average income tax, but property taxes are probably the lowest in the nation unless some state doesn't have property tax. Prop 13 especially insures that anyone (or their family) who bought property in the 80s or earlier, pays almost no property tax. This applies to companies too. Property values can only be re-assessed up if the property is sold to a non family member. The best part is that if you sell a business that owns property, that property stays assessed at old values. Companies create corporations for the sole purpose of holding a single large property, then instead of selling the property they sell the holding company.
California tax is hosed up, and most of it can be linked to prop 13 and the huge holes it creates.

That said, we allegedly have a budget surplus this year. Many of the inland counties are still hosed though.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 06:31

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

nm posted:

Depends. We have a somewhat higher than average income tax, but property taxes are probably the lowest in the nation unless some state doesn't have property tax. Prop 13 especially insures that anyone (or their family) who bought property in the 80s or earlier, pays almost no property tax. This applies to companies too. Property values can only be re-assessed up if the property is sold to a non family member. The best part is that if you sell a business that owns property, that property stays assessed at old values. Companies create corporations for the sole purpose of holding a single large property, then instead of selling the property they sell the holding company.
California tax is hosed up, and most of it can be linked to prop 13 and the huge holes it creates.

That said, we allegedly have a budget surplus this year. Many of the inland counties are still hosed though.

You also have a surprisingly high sales tax rate (7.5% statewide, with local districts able to add up to 1% extra; for reference here in Texas the rate is 8.25%).

e: Apparently the "official" general sales tax in Texas is only 6.25% and local districts can just add up to 2%.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 06:35

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Ho Chi Mint posted:

Can someone give me a good summary of California's financial status? Are the taxes high compared to the rest of the country, has the state balanced its budget?

From a budget perspective the state is crawling out of the recession due to improving tax revenues, even though ironically things such as bubble-esque real estate speculation are back.

Like many other states it also trouble with corporate tax income evasion such as how tech companies such as Google or Apple cleverly play the offshore trick to reduce their tax burden.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 06:37

Zeitgueist: Aug 8, 2003; by Ralp

nm posted:

Depends. We have a somewhat higher than average income tax, but property taxes are probably the lowest in the nation unless some state doesn't have property tax. Prop 13 especially insures that anyone (or their family) who bought property in the 80s or earlier, pays almost no property tax. This applies to companies too. Property values can only be re-assessed up if the property is sold to a non family member. The best part is that if you sell a business that owns property, that property stays assessed at old values. Companies create corporations for the sole purpose of holding a single large property, then instead of selling the property they sell the holding company.
California tax is hosed up, and most of it can be linked to prop 13 and the huge holes it creates.

That said, we allegedly have a budget surplus this year. Many of the inland counties are still hosed though.

To add to this, Prop 13 was essentially created with the express purpose of loving California through Starve The Beast, and did so pretty well.

Despite being one of the top 10 economies in the world, the state is in a perenial budget shithole. Though with a Dem supermajority and Governor, it's got slightly better, but for the most part our Team Blue is Team Light Red like in most of the country.

To make up for our massive property tax hole, we have regressively high tax rates and fees on most everything else. It's not wrong to say that our budget problems could be pretty much entirely solved by fixing the property tax issue, since the gaps are never more than a tiny, tiny fraction of our state GDP. The weighting of the budget on income and sales taxes also means that we're very sensitive to booms and recessions, moreso than many other states.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 08:10

Armyman25: Sep 6, 2005

Thanks, this is very informative!

The line I hear from guys at work is "California is broke because it has too many social services and Union leeches."

# ? Aug 7, 2013 09:49

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Man, the thing I like about that is that we're still a donor state and help foot the bill for a lot of red states (e.g. Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi) :dance:

# ? Aug 7, 2013 15:17

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Ho Chi Mint posted:

Thanks, this is very informative!

The line I hear from guys at work is "California is broke because it has too many social services and Union leeches."

It's also the classic case of corporate tax evasion again due to the generous property tax laws and also how many of the big companies such as Google
are masters of offshoring corporate profits in lower overseas tax areas such as Ireland.

For example Google uses the Dublin office to declare all the EU zone profits since Ireland offers a special 12.1% tax rate to certain corporations.

The whole Prop 13 trainwreck is also another amusing example of the direct democracy concept being pretty horrible given all the negative effects
such as locking down the house market or how it required increasing regressive type consumption rates such as sales tax which affect the poor more.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 15:30

Cormack: Apr 29, 2009

Disclaimer: this is casual googling and I don't know if these numbers are massaged to hell, outdated, etc:

http://chautauqua.ny.us/departments/tax/Pages/PropertyTaxStateRank.htm

It looks like the actual taxes paid by Californians are relatively reasonable (10th highest paid value). It's a pretty low tax rate, but due to the very high value of California homes you still end up paying some cash.

The low tax burdens end up being places you would expect like Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia, and, err, Hawaii?

# ? Aug 7, 2013 16:44

Zeitgueist: Aug 8, 2003; by Ralp

Ho Chi Mint posted:

The line I hear from guys at work is "California is broke because it has too many social services and Union leeches."

Not even remotely true. California is(was) broke because rich people don't want to pay taxes, just like most every other state.

# ? Aug 7, 2013 17:03

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Zeitgueist posted:

Not even remotely true. California is(was) broke because rich people don't want to pay taxes, just like most every other state.

Plus a good amount of the problem was due to requiring a 2/3 majority to pass thing such as budget or tax bills. It wasn't possible to pass such things until the failure of the GOP led to a democratic supermajority.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 13:56

StandardVC10: Feb 6, 2007; This avatar now 50% more dark mode compliant

A while back I read an interesting op-ed in the LA Times about California's local budget woes, that basically indicted poorly planned sprawl as the reason local governments were running out of money and trying to hose their workers' pensions. Basically they built new housing developments outward, and that generated revenue while they were under construction and while the boom was going upward. But when the housing market stopped booming, the cities would be left with all of the expenses of the expansion- maintaining roads, fire department service, and other infrastructure- and none of the revenues.

I'm not sure how much wider support this guy's thesis got, but when I read it it explained the situation in a lot of places pretty well to me.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 14:41

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

StandardVC10 posted:

I'm not sure how much wider support this guy's thesis got, but when I read it it explained the situation in a lot of places pretty well to me.

Yeah it's a pretty big problem with sprawl since developers often sell the local government on how a pile of new subdivisions will bring in extra permit and tax money.

So you pretty much a get a short term increase in taxes/permit fees but ends up being really expensive in the long run due to all the extra costs with building infrastructure out to the new developments.

This can be contrasted to building up existing areas which already have infrastructure in place such as roads and schools.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 14:49

Tayter Swift: Nov 18, 2002; Pillbug

etalian posted:

Plus a good amount of the problem was due to requiring a 2/3 majority to pass thing such as budget or tax bills. It wasn't possible to pass such things until the failure of the GOP led to a democratic supermajority.

I don't think there's a supermajority. Proposition 25 which was passed in 2010 changed the budget procedure so that it only requires a simple majority to pass the Legislature instead of the 2/3 majority it previously did, and that's what's really unfucked things -- the relative power it gave Orange County Republicans was absolutely insane.

It was some seriously fun times working for the State around that time -- on top of 3 furlough days a month, then Governor Schwarzenegger's great tactic for trying to get the Democrats to capitulate was to reduce state workers' pay to Federal (not State, literally $5.15/hr) wage until the "budget emergency" was over, whenever that was. State Controller John Chiang is now pretty much the patron saint of public employees here for standing up to it in court.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 15:08

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

Here's an interesting Wiki link about the technical details of the common Ireland-based profit offshoring scheme people were talking about earlier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish

# ? Aug 8, 2013 15:20

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Shear Modulus posted:

Here's an interesting Wiki link about the technical details of the common Ireland-based profit offshoring scheme people were talking about earlier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish

Sort of off topic but it's pretty creative way to dodge California's 8.84% corporate tax rate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?pagewanted=all

For example Apple uses a subsidiary setup in Nevada to manage the excess cash and also do safe investments with company profits.
Using the arrangement is great for apple since Nevada does not charge corporate taxes.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 15:33

raminasi: Jan 25, 2005; a last drink with no ice

Eegah posted:

I don't think there's a supermajority. Proposition 25 which was passed in 2010 changed the budget procedure so that it only requires a simple majority to pass the Legislature instead of the 2/3 majority it previously did, and that's what's really unfucked things -- the relative power it gave Orange County Republicans was absolutely insane.

There is a supermajority. The prop 25 change allowed a simple majority to pass a budget, but new taxes still need 2/3rds.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 18:11

Zeitgueist: Aug 8, 2003; by Ralp

GrumpyDoctor posted:

There is a supermajority. The prop 25 change allowed a simple majority to pass a budget, but new taxes still need 2/3rds.

This is correct. The 2/3 new tax thing is part of Prop 13.

# ? Aug 8, 2013 18:13

GreenCard78: Apr 25, 2005; It's all in the game, yo.

StandardVC10 posted:

A while back I read an interesting op-ed in the LA Times about California's local budget woes, that basically indicted poorly planned sprawl as the reason local governments were running out of money and trying to hose their workers' pensions. Basically they built new housing developments outward, and that generated revenue while they were under construction and while the boom was going upward. But when the housing market stopped booming, the cities would be left with all of the expenses of the expansion- maintaining roads, fire department service, and other infrastructure- and none of the revenues.

I'm not sure how much wider support this guy's thesis got, but when I read it it explained the situation in a lot of places pretty well to me.

This is exactly what happened in El Centro, a place where a town probably shouldn't be at all or should at least remain small. I'm sure it happened to many other towns. But never fear, the housing market will return!

# ? Aug 8, 2013 18:16

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Eegah posted:

I don't think there's a supermajority. Proposition 25 which was passed in 2010 changed the budget procedure so that it only requires a simple majority to pass the Legislature instead of the 2/3 majority it previously did, and that's what's really unfucked things -- the relative power it gave Orange County Republicans was absolutely insane.

Man, I remember an OC Register article :qq:

-ing about how Orange County's mostly-Republican state legislators were now completely hamstrung by the new supermajority.

More GOP tears in the aftermath of the 2012 election: still fun to read, even months after the schadenfreude thread was closed.

quote:

DYSTOPIA AHEAD?

Baugh has long been concerned that the U.S. is becoming like socialist countries in Europe due to the growth in entitlement programs, including Obama's Affordable Care Act. He's now worried that the trend will continue with Obama's re-election.

"It very well could be that this country is getting too comfortable with too much socialism � and there's a point where there's no return," he said in a conversation on a patio outside. "Entitlement reform is a challenge we have to face. That's why I'm sad tonight � I don't see the path to that."

Ronnie Guyer, an aide to termed-out Assemblyman Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach, saw Obama's next term bringing something direr.

"In the next four years, we are headed toward the dark ages," said Guyer. "These next four years are going to be about Obama's revenge. We're going to see the elimination of our freedom. It's going to be like communist Vietnam."

Guyer, who said it is "probable" that Obama is not U.S. born, doubts Obama will allow free presidential elections in 2016.

"He'll declare martial law or something," said Guyer, citing the "Obama 2016" movie by Dinesh D'Souza. "We won't have representative government. That's been his plan all along. The mass media hasn't adequately informed the public."
[...]
PARTISANSHIP

Rancho Santa Margarita's Steve Baric is vice chairman of the state GOP and a likely candidate to take the helm next year. He doesn't predict the dystopia envisioned by Guyer, but was hardly upbeat.

"By any measure, this president has been a failure," said Baric, standing on the steps outside the Westin as people headed toward the parking structure.

Romney, in his concession speech, called for moving beyond "partisan bickering." But while congressional Republicans have been criticized as being obstructionists, Baric lays the blame of partisanship at the feet of Obama.

"This president has shown he has no interest in working across the aisle," Baric said. "I think Republicans have made efforts. (House Speaker John) Boehner took a debt reduction plan to Obama and Obama had no interest. "

It was also drat satisfying to see my former peer advisor, from Cypress, post on his Facebook that he was going to a Romney victory party, saying "I'll be there, how about you guys?" and then cry about how Obama lost the majority of counties but still got reelected :unsmigghh:

# ? Aug 8, 2013 18:38

etalian: Mar 20, 2006