LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Re: California and the wealthy

There is an old adage that in ANY business or industry, which rang true in my career of 41 years in financial services, that 20% of the providers generate 80% of the business!

In an article published a year ago in the LA Times, it cited that just half of one percent of California Tax Return filers pay 40% of all income taxes collected by the state, the single biggest share of taxes collected! And 17% (my 80/20 experience) of tax filers pay $46.4 billion, which is over half the statewide total!

The stark trend of the wealthy LEAVING California is a trend that better get reversed fast, as these are the folks that keep the state afloat! The super wealthy (only 10,344 filers) in the state who earn at least $5 million per year pay $19 billion in taxes or 20% of the state’s total! Again, the stats I cite are from five years ago in 2019! I assume, need to be careful there, that the current state budget deficit projection of roughly $73 billion is being GREATLY affected by the exodus of many wealthy filers just in the last three years, and those folks are not coming back, and a they are being replaced by folks ranked much lower on the wealth scale!

I would surmise that the FED UP factor with this state wasting money, while the quality of life in so many Zip Codes is regressing, is the perception that must be changed in order for a dramatic turnaround (wealthy staying or moving back to the state) to occur! At this point, while he was not intending to make a political statement, Buster Posey’s recent comments about

TOP SHELF Free Agents not wanting to come to crime & drug addicts ridden San Francisco (quality of life decay) despite the competitive pay being offered should be another HUGE RED FLAG!

John Cassidy Yuba City