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Rah! posted:California politics? I had a good laugh seeing how he was still on the CA ballot guide. Also this is pretty much the best article on the Bay Area housing trainwreck: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/
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May 1, 2014 05:47
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agarjogger posted:I thought that last post was pretty CA-relevant. A friendly reminder that CA used to have a Euro like higher education for all system, until Reagan and company destroyed.
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May 2, 2014 02:10
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Dead Last posted:Very good point. The problem I usually have with the approach of a lot of progressives, like the Bay Guardian, is they all think San Francisco is some sort of falling liberal utopia. Except for the early 2000s backlash against Willie Brown, and a brief blip in the 70s, the city government has always been very friendly to the corporate downtown interests. Because those interests have been the dominate feature of the city since the gold rush. It's more similar at least to NYC with mainly moderate limousine liberals, with the occasionally progressive firebrand who ends up being a footnote in history. A pile of companies are based in SF too similar to NYC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_based_in_San_Francisco
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May 2, 2014 03:09
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CA is best state since we allow replicants to become our leaders: http://jackyan.com/blog/2014/02/do-mayoral-candidates-dream-of-electric-sheep/ 
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May 2, 2014 04:40
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Armani posted:I live in SoCal with my family. Well in somewhat recent new Toyota is moving their US corporate headquarters out of state from CA to Plano TX: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/toyota-moving-us-base-california-texas-23508449
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May 3, 2014 18:00
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:So in ad-chat, I saw one this morning from Neel Kashkari where he starts cutting wood, and each log he cuts is titled "Taxes", "Welfare to jobs", "Crazy cross-state train". Take a wild guess which party he's from (and what his chances are this fall). It fun scanning the CA voting guide for the real loonies like a platform built around Obama's birth certificate and forcing him to undego social security everify.
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May 7, 2014 01:10
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Shbobdb posted:I agree, there is no way the STEMs will unionize. There is too much of an anti-Communist presence from Koreans, plus Asian work ethic in general is pretty nuts. It leads to people just accepting what is a very bad situation. This month we can see what sort of settlement the lawsuit got on may 27: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/us-apple-google-settlement-idUSBREA3N1Y120140424 Probably a few million dollars in back wages, which will probably hurt Google very bad.
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May 7, 2014 02:24
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May 7, 2014 05:49
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withak posted:"How to Buzzword Your Buzzwordiest Buzzwords" by Gavin Newsome. at least it led to this great Colbert interview: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/jipac1/gavin-newsom
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May 7, 2014 06:23
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Leperflesh posted:Gavin Newsom is kind of like a distilled, ultra-refined politician - clean-cut, handsome, utterly entrenched in the big-money wheeling and dealing of modern politics. I'm voting for him because California deserves nothing less than a Nexus 5 in a position of power.
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May 8, 2014 03:51
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Voting by ballot for everyone is pretty amazing coming from state that only had the absentee option for special cases. Also it has a list of instructions such as careful folding to make sure you are smart enough to vote.
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May 9, 2014 05:34
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Trabisnikof posted:If by a lot you mean 1 well is less than 1 single family home.... biggest waste of water is agriculture, residential makes up 15% of the total use even with east coast green lawn stupidity
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May 16, 2014 02:11
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computer parts posted:California's sales tax is 7.5% so it's less than a 1% increase (8.25%), plus there's no income tax either. most places are 9.5% sales tax total The biggest delta for why Texas is cheaper is due to the better housing prices and Texas also has no income tax. etalian fucked around with this message at 05:01 on May 16, 2014 |
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May 16, 2014 04:59
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Shbobdb posted:As a recent transplant to Oakland, who are the most D&D candidates to vote for in the primary? I know it is a way out but I want to start vandalizing campaign offices sooner rather than later. It's more of a SoCal thing, but I'm thinking arson is in this season. The most D&D candidates would probably be US green party members that have no chance of winning.
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May 17, 2014 20:22
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This song should be in the OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMix60cXETU
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May 18, 2014 19:59
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Mofabio posted:For mayor, that'd be Shake Anderson of the Oakland Greens. I'm sure the state really needs another direct democracy experiment.
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May 19, 2014 05:17
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Trabisnikof posted:SF is increasing the number of units available. Its already one of the densest cities in the US, meanwhile Daly City and the peninsula have a commuter rail connection and 0 desire to grow their housing, even as their employment base grows. This is pretty much the best article I read on the Bay Area housing problem: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/
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May 21, 2014 05:00
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Dusseldorf posted:I mean it's all of the above. In short the Peninsula and South Bay are horrible and people with money are willing to spend it to not live there. The Peninsula has some pretty cute downtown areas for cities like San Mateo, South Bay is pretty horrible in general in terms of being a forgettable maze of big box stores and bland suburbia. To get back on topic away from the standard housing whining, this is probably the best worst candidate for governor: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/21/local/la-me-glenn-champ-20140322 
etalian fucked around with this message at 05:48 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 05:44
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Telesphorus posted:Driving through / touring the Bay Area and Marin county is always an eye-opener. People are wealthy to a point where it's obscene. Just think of all the awesome stuff people from SF could steal if Marin had raised the bonds for BART stations on their side of the bay.
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May 23, 2014 18:00
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FRINGE posted:Its true though. Silicon Valley money gives you pus-oozing sores and makes you a Randian monster. Its literally obscene. When America adopts the Burqa it wont be to cover the women, it will be to hide the traumatizing faces of the computer people. SV is more along the lines of feeding the center right "pro-business" faction of the democratic party, even though there are a few libertarian weirdos such as Thiel from Palantir. It's basically a great money tree for the DNC given how all the big name tech companies from Google to Oracle give to the DNC in big amounts such as 90 percent contributions vs the GOP. Tech was also one of the best fundraising pillars for both Obama presidential campaigns.
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May 24, 2014 00:20
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Craptacular! posted:What urban renewal happened via Boomers? As far as I can see, they were the first generation to really come, of age with easy, affordable access to cars and took quickly to new unwalkable cities that covered great distances, because oil will never run out and therefore distance is irrelevant. This shortsighted planning isn't entirely their fault (Their parents were in power much of the formative years), but they didn't do much to turn it back: New York rotted and Detroit became Detroit. Yeah Bay Area housing articles is interesting since it points out the the whole knowledge economy thing meant multiple big cities actually saw positive population growth for the first time in many years.
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May 25, 2014 16:42
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FRINGE posted:Jacking up sales tax is a lovely idea that just squeezes the lower class out of every market. Jacking up the property tax is a much better alternative. The progressive bracket system is the best idea
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May 27, 2014 02:07
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Kaal posted:Prop 13 has been devastating for the Californian state and economy, and buoys up the price of property for the benefit of land speculators and commercial real estate. Which is precisely what it was designed to do, seeing as it was developed by anti-tax conservative nativists. Measure 5, in Oregon, has had a pretty similar effect, so it's not like there's something unique going on in California. When you make real estate into a tax shelter, people are going to take advantage of it. Yeah it was a classic example for well meaning stupidity in the direct democracy concept, not to mention the hilarity of entitled home owners being able to vote in a big tax cut for themselves. Not to mention how it constrained home turnover/market supply since it provides a big incentive for people to just buy and hold properties until hell freezes over. Was also a big windfall for corporate interests given how Prop 13 also allowed them to escape higher assessments for their property by making sure the same holding company held the property. Similar to houses, a commercial property would only get reassessments after a change of ownership. A similar measure in Oregon also had predictable bad side effects for muni fiscal health: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Ballot_Measure_5_(1990) etalian fucked around with this message at 17:55 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 17:49
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natetimm posted:It's a bunch of Boomer and old person-hating being perpetrated by a generation that resents that they don't have it as good as previous ones. Yeah it's all apart hating old people who were smart enough to vote themselves a big tax cut, while muni services get underfunded not to mention all the other problems such as distorting the market due to the buy and hold mentality.
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May 27, 2014 18:46
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natetimm posted:The idea that Californians don't pay enough tax is a myth. We pay the 4th highest in the nation, even with prop 13. Also what's wrong with people who want to buy property and keep it? It's a classic example of government intervention leading to market distortion, not to mention being yet another big subsidy for property owners especially for commercial properties. Also most sane counties for other states have the freedom to set property tax rates and assessments, while Prop 13 basically turned over muni finances to Sacramento. etalian fucked around with this message at 18:55 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 18:52
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Either way regardless of your taxes are bad argument, Prop 13 destroyed local control of funding via property taxes. Before local counties had control of their taxation, while now they stand in line to get dole money from Sacramento. It also forced the state and also counties to rely more on a mix of capital and income tax for funding.
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May 27, 2014 19:03
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At the bare minimum they should at least reform the commercial property part of Prop 13, was basically big loophole handout for corporations.
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May 27, 2014 19:08
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I think everyone can agree direct democracy is a really bad idea especially when it affects things such financial inner workings.
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May 28, 2014 04:17
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Family Values posted:Politically a full repeal of Prop 13 just isn't feasible. Regardless of the merits too many people hold the same beliefs or will be swayed by the arguments that natetimm is making. Excluding commercial property and removing the 2/3s majority budgetary constraints are individually probably a lot more tenable. There's an effort to get Prop 13 reform on the 2016 ballot: Yeah would be wiser to take the eating the elephant approach and target reforms such as the generous corporate loopholes instead.
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May 28, 2014 18:56
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Shbobdb posted:I am curious about more info on prop 13. I'm for it, not because I'm informed, but because the only times I've encountered prop 13 discussion is when right wing lunatics bring it up (n=3) and talk about how terrible it is. I figure if they are a against it, then it is probably a good thing. It was basically a part of something called the tax revolt.  Horward Jarvis was basically your typical "pro-business" tax cut activist who was very instrumental in getting prop 13 on the ballot and also served in the state senate as a republican. The main thing that drove prop 13 was the image of the poor grandma getting forced out of her home by big property taxes, not to mention the idea of tax cuts for everyone has lots of appeal to your average voter. The law capped both the max tax assessment increase to 2% per year and also made it illegal to do assessments on yearly basis unless a change of ownership/new construction occurred for both private and corporate property. It doesn't take much of brain to see what it was a really bad idea especially given how it removed one of the pillars of county tax base and gave it over to the state government. It also ended up being a big giveaway to corporations since they could avoid paying more property tax by holding onto the property even after doing big upgrades to the property. Oregon had a similar great tax cap measure which yielded similar lovely results in the long run: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Ballot_Measure_5_(1990) etalian fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 05:24
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Shbobdb posted:So why do firebreathers hate it? From my experience it's loved by right wing types since it taking taxes which would just get wasted by the greedy local governments. Just overlook how most counties in the USA tend to use a mix of sales tax, property tax and in case of some cities a small income tax to make ends meet. tldr The whole Prop 13 thing was started by your typical "pro-business" republican trying to starve the beast
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May 29, 2014 05:33
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Mayor Dave posted:Yeah, I don't think I've ever really heard right-wing types talk about overturning Prop 13. Not to say you haven't, but it's a massive benefit for both corporate and wealthy long-term property owners. Consider Disneyland: It's also a fairly clever trick in wine country like Sonoma, basically you split the vineyard ownership among multiple people to meet the 50 percent loophole and then don't have to pay any additional taxes despite doing piles of upgrades to the property. It's all good though since greatly local governments would only waste the money on things like school or libraries.
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May 29, 2014 06:05
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Kaal posted:It certainly was a conservative coup in a now-liberal state, which is why the GOP fervently supports Prop 13. I could potentially see a conservative moderate being against Prop 13 because it's basically the definition of people voting for the state to give them money, which is precisely the kind of populist unsustainability that they often rage against when liberals do it with welfare entitlements. But it's an issue that few Californian homeowners are going to get worked up over, because they are the recipients of the handout. Yeah it's the insidious nature of Prop 13 since it benefits a certain voting bloc(corporate property/"old" grandfathered in home owners) and over time people come to accept it as the status quo since it benefits them greatly. Also Prop 13 also had a clever poison pill wording which requires a 2/3 voting majority to either get rid of the law or even amend it which is not likely going to happen seeing how it benefitted certain groups really well. The GOP also from idealogical point of view is perfectly happy to give corporations big tax cuts such as Prop 13 but on the flip side gets meltdowns over social safety net spending as "entitlement programs" Also remember if you are new homeowner in California all the Prop 13 honey money doesn't apply to you, so enjoy a bigger tax burden than your neighbor who owned the same sort of house for many years. etalian fucked around with this message at 06:49 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 06:42
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FYI another state did a similar property tax cap idea with predictable results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Ballot_Measure_5_(1990) Oregon is even worse since it doesn't have a sales tax and Measure 5 also greatly reduced local tax base independence. So basically the counties were forced to depend on the state for school funding
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May 30, 2014 01:05
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Trabisnikof posted:Why do you think inheriting low taxes is good? That's pretty much the most discriminatory tax policy imaginable. Sucks to be you if your family didn't have wealth before 1979. Yup prop 13 means new homeowners don't get the big tax break.
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May 30, 2014 01:24
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FRINGE posted:OC, still holding down the title as Shithole of SoCal. It's the California version of colorado springs.
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May 30, 2014 01:32
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Isn't Orange County pretty much the granddaddy of places like Colorado Springs or Placer County? Basically it's the spocks beard county of California
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May 30, 2014 01:42
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Space-Bird posted:You might want to turn your ire to the Google employees using San Francisco as a commuter Bedroom town, then. Everyone agrees there needs to be more affordable housing, I'm not sure what this whole 'legacy stuff' is, and why a subset of people who bought houses at a certain time get far more benefits/protection than everyone else. You talk as if these people with extremely valuable property are going to be dragged from their beds and forced to a life of poverty in the streets. Prop 13 also provides big tax breaks to multi-million dollars profitable corporations like Disney in Anaheim. It's pretty much a poster child for why direct democracy is a really dumb idea since it was such as far sweeping tax "reform" law.
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May 30, 2014 01:49
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Leperflesh posted:
Not to mention Prop 13 pushed a radical private and corporate property tax freeze plan on every single CA county which is pretty undemocratic IMO. Counties should be allowed to vote and decided how they maintain their tax base. Counties that drink the tax cuts koolaid are welcome cut taxes such as property rates assuming they don't mind all the costs associated with underfunding important local services such as education or transportation.
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May 30, 2014 05:58
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TheOneAndOnlyT posted:Can I just ask one question to natetimm? Why are you so absolutely convinced that giving the state and local governments the power to set property taxes will lead to disaster? Most other states grant local governments that power and it hasn't made it impossible for non-super-rich people to live there. What exactly is so different about CA that will suddenly cause the total cost of a home to skyrocket if we repeal prop 13? I used to own a house and the county gave a special property tax discount to disabled home owners as well as people who worked for volunteer EMS. Prop 13 basically forced every county to have the same policy without regard to local needs.
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May 30, 2014 23:35
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