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
