Sacramento Observer: California Must Champion the Working Class

Aside from major expenses, such as the skyrocketing cost of housing, exacerbating the problem is California’s high regressive taxes, such as those on sales and gasoline. Lower-income workers pay a disproportionately higher amount of their income on regressive taxes – hurting their ability to support themselves in expensive areas across the state.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the lowest income bracket in California pays over 7% of their total income on sales and excise taxes alone, whereas top earners pay only .8%.

Yet lawmakers seem to be making little effort to ease the tax burden on anyone in California, especially those at the bottom of the income scale. Read more

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