❝ When governments decide to expropriate legally obtained assets, entrepreneurs who worked tirelessly to build businesses and investors who risked scarce capital end up with little to nothing for their troubles. ❞

...

❝ So it’s all the more puzzling that California, home of Silicon Valley and the densest concentration of entrepreneurs in the nation (possibly the world) would pass Proposition 30 in last month’s election. Regardless of your personal views on the issues of taxing and spending, there is one thing that cannot be overlooked. Prop 30 includes a gigantic retroactive tax increase on legitimate capital gains and ordinary income that dates back to Jan. 1, 2012. ❞

Well said.

The proposition system has caused all kinds of unnatural acts.

This one is going to hurt, but it was the only way we could balance the budget without killing education.

At least, that's how Prop 30 was sold to us.

It won't... because the money goes into the general fund and there are no enforceable provisions that MAKE the money go directly to improving education.  And note even if it "went to education" funding teacher unions and padding ridiculous entitlements and pensions for those "near" the classroom do not improve education either. Such a small percentage of $$'s spent on education make it to the classroom.  We already spend nearly the highest % per pupil, and are in the bottom percentile for measured results. Disclaimer: my wife IS a teacher.

This state is already fiscally defunct due to decades of outrageous entitlements and spending for government workers; even despite all the great industries that are located here (uhhh look at all the entertainment production that has fled the state for one example).  This was a turn for the worse because it chases successful businesses and entrepreneurs OUT of the state; leaving the ones who remain to be bled more.  CA is fiscally broken.

Disclaimer 2:Paying more teachers does not make them work harder nor produce better teachers that produce better results.  There's a very long waiting list of talented teachers waiting to get jobs.  The waste in education spending is all at the administrative level, which is mismanaged and bloated.  This notion of government supported lifelong support coupled with early retirement (given the elongating lifespans) is matched nowhere in the private sector and will someday have to be reeled into some kind of fiscal reality; or it will all just crash.CA really needs to go bankrupt so it can renegotiate all of it's untenable contracts.

 I don't have kids and I voted to tax myself more.  It's weird to me that most of the people I know who are opposed to this tax are the ones who actually have kids.