How is it that Californians pay the highest taxes in the country but get the worst results?
Highest gas tax in America — but we have the worst roads.
Highest income tax — and the highest unemployment rate of any state.
The nation’s highest state sales tax — alongside America’s highest poverty rate.
Sixteen years of Democrat one-party rule have seen an explosion of bloated, bureaucratic government from Sacramento. Now it’s dawning on more and more Californians that there’s a direct connection.
We suffer the worst results because we have the highest taxes.
And it keeps getting worse. Look at the Democrats’ latest cruel ploy to punish regular working people: a new “mileage tax” that will track you everywhere you drive your car or truck, then charge you for it.
It could cost drivers more than $1,000 a year. And that’s before we even get to the creepy surveillance part of this outrageous scheme.
This is on top of all the other hidden taxes and fees drivers have to pay — from the gas tax to vehicle registration. In most other states it costs less than $100 to renew your registration each year. In California it can be hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars.
The punishing level of taxation in California is driving out the very people and businesses we need to generate the wealth on which a successful economy and society depend.
It’s become so bad that the taxes don’t even have to be enacted for them to have a massively destructive effect.
Just look at the Democrats’ insane scheme for a so-called “billionaire tax” — in reality, a totally un-American and unconstitutional asset seizure.
Merely the threat of it, according to the hosts of the influential tech and politics podcast “All-In,” has driven $1 trillion of wealth out of the state in recent weeks. Billions of dollars of tax revenue have been lost as legendary California entrepreneurs like Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin flee to less hostile locations.
But if punitive taxes aren’t making life better for Californians, where is all our money going? The more they take, the less we seem to get.
Well — we are starting to find out.
In 2024, the California State Auditor identified $24 billion of homelessness spending that couldn’t be accounted for. Homelessness continued to rise during the time this money was “spent.”
Now, prosecutions led by Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, are revealing that some of the money wasn’t spent on fighting homelessness; it was stolen by fraudsters.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz was recently in California to highlight $1.3 billion illegally spent on health care for undocumented immigrants, as well as widespread fraud in the hospice care system.
But isn’t it outrageous that it’s taken federal action to start bringing some accountability for all this?
Where is Gavin Newsom? Too busy trolling President Trump on social media and making a fool of himself in Davos.
Where is California Attorney General Rob Bonta? Too busy filing endless nuisance lawsuits against the Trump administration.
It should be our leaders, here in California, who protect taxpayers by finding and stopping fraud. They should be careful stewards of our money, making sure they take as little from us as possible and spending it wisely and effectively.
Instead we have a shameful culture of corruption and neglect.
I’m running for governor to put an end to all this. I will veto the extortionate mileage tax scheme if it is ever passed by the Democrat-dominated legislature.
Last week, I announced my plan to cap vehicle registration at the basic rate of $71.
And I’m not even waiting until I’m elected.
This week I announced the establishment of CAL DOGE, the California Department of Government Efficiency. A stellar team of highly qualified volunteers, drawn from the worlds of finance, law enforcement, and government reform, is getting to work identifying fraud, as well as on specific steps to cut our bloated state government down to size.
A fraud whistleblower line, Califraud.com, which I launched last year with my running mate for state controller, Herb Morgan, has already identified up to $250 billion in potential fraud.
I’m putting together the team to shut down “Califraudia” for good.
As governor, it will be my top priority to put hard-working Californians first, not the corrupt system built up over 16 years of Democrat one-party rule.
Stop the fraud, end the bloat, cut taxes — that’s at the heart of my campaign to make our state Califordable again.
Steve Hilton is a Republican candidate for governor. @stevehiltonx stevehiltonforgovernor.com
The post The ‘mileage tax’ is only the beginning of ‘Califraudia’ — here’s my plan for ‘Califordia’ appeared first on New York Post.
