|
April 19, 2024
[Note from Peter: California’s
insanely woke deficit spending is legendary. And we know the results--
homelessness everywhere, drugs, crime, broken infrastructure. Bang up
job, Gavin. But this new report from the State Auditor shows just how
wasteful these programs really are. Rational people ought to be
thinking about tax planning… because the state is just going to keep
wasting your money.]
Veronica Perez was skeptical when city workers found her
under the Los Angeles highway overpass she called home.
They presented her with an opportunity to move into a
private room—a converted hotel room, part of a state initiative where
some units were renovated at costs approaching $400,000 each.
Before long, Veronica found herself receiving three meals
a day delivered straight to her door and participating in weekly
painting classes. Additionally, she began receiving free medical care.
This was one of several California state programs meant to
address homelessness. Others spent up to $4,000 per person a month
putting the homeless up in motels and hotels, including some name-brand
hotels like the Radisson.
California’s extreme and highly ineffective spending on
homelessness has become the stuff of legend. But now the numbers have
become clearer.
Last week, the state auditor released a scathing report
finding that there were no systems set up to monitor the money, let
alone the outcomes. In short, there is no accountability in place to
determine whether these programs are worth the cost. (They’re not.)
But California’s state government continues shoveling
money into a bottomless pit of incompetence.
In the five years from 2018 through 2022, California spent
a total of $24 billion to address homelessness.
At the start of this period, around 140,000 California
residents were homeless.
So, the state spent around $34,285 per homeless person,
per year.
That amount is actually pretty close to California’s
per-capita income of $45,491. So, it should have been enough to get
every single homeless person off the streets.
Instead, by 2023, the number of homeless Californians had
climbed to over 180,000.
And just 15,000 more people were living in California's
homeless shelters in 2023 compared to 2018. So, if you decide to call
that success, it only cost taxpayers $1.6 million per homeless person
taken off the streets— what
a bargain!
But this wasn’t a one-off. This is consistently how
California in particular, and governments in general, operate.
In 2008, California voters approved a $10 billion project
to build a 500-mile high-speed rail that would connect Los Angeles to
San Francisco by 2020.
Guess what? It didn’t happen.
It’s now four years after the original 2020 deadline. The
government now believes it can complete a 171-mile rail (as opposed to
500 miles) between the cities of Merced and Bakersfield (instead of LA
and San Francisco).
They also think they can complete this different project
by... 2033 (instead of 2020). And at a cost of $35 billion (instead of
$10 billion).
You might also like to know that ALL federal taxpayers
from the other 49 states have chipped in, thanks to various COVID
bailouts, infrastructure bills, etc. Total federal money allocated
towards the failed rail project so far is $6.6 billion, and that’s just
getting started.
Just like the failed homeless programs, the government has
taken taxpayer money and thrown it down a bottomless pit of
incompetence.
This is one of the reasons why tax planning is such an
important part of a Plan B. Well, tax planning should frankly be Plan
A.
The reality is that just about everyone has completely
legitimate ways to legally reduce the amount that you owe.
I’m not talking about any obscure loophole or exotic tax
structure. Sometimes it’s as simple as maximizing deductions (like
contributions to retirement accounts, health savings accounts, etc.)
And for people who are more flexible with their lives and
decisions, moving to a lower tax state can result in huge savings.
Moving to Puerto Rico can cap qualifying business income
at just 4% tax, and investment income at 0%. Or moving abroad entitles
you to claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (which is $126,500 for
single taxpayers, or $253,000 per couple).
Bottom line, there
are always legitimate ways to reduce what you owe while still being
100% compliant with the tax code. And with so many Inspired Idiots in
charge who keep throwing your money away, it really makes sense to
consider your options.
To your freedom,
|
No comments:
Post a Comment