- The following are 22 facts about California that make
you wonder why anyone would still want to live in that hellhole of a state....
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- #1 The California state
government is facing a potential state budget deficit of 19 billion dollars
this year, and California debt is rapidly approaching junk status.
One way or another the taxpayers of California are going to have to pay
for this mess somehow.
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- #2 California Governor
Jerry Brown recently unveiled a "draconian" budget plan
for 2011 that includes 12 billion dollars more in spending cuts and
that maintains 12 billion dollars in recent tax increases.
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- #3 The state of California
currently has the third highest state income tax in the
nation: a 9.55% tax bracket at $47,055 and a 10.55% bracket at $1,000,000.
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- #4 California has the
highest state sales tax rate in the nation by far at 8.25%. Indiana has
the next highest at 7%.
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- #5 Residents of California
pay the highest gasoline taxes (over 67 cents per gallon) in the United
States.
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- #6 California had more
foreclosure filings that any other U.S. state in 2010. The546,669 total
foreclosure filings during the year means that over 4 percent of all the
housing units in the state of California received a foreclosure filing
at some point during 2010.
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- #7 Home prices in some
areas of California have completely fallen off a cliff. For example, the
average home in Merced, California has declined in value by 63 percent over
the past four years.
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- #8 725 new laws (most
of them either completely pointless or completely stupid) went into effect
in the state of California on January 1st.
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- #9 20 percent of
the residents of Los Angeles County are now receiving public aid of one
kind or another.
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- #10 The number of people
unemployed in the state of California is approximately equal to the
populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
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- #11 In some areas of
California, the level of unemployment is absolutely nightmarish. For example, 24.3
percent of the residents of El Centro, California are now unemployed.
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- #12 Residents of California
pay some of the highest electricity prices in the entire nation.
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- #13 The state of California
ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency
rooms per million people.
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- #14 According to one
survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age
of 65 has absolutely no health insurance.
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- #15 At one point last
year it was reported that in the area around Sacramento, California there
was one closed business for every six that were still open.
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- #16 In the late 70s,
California was number one in per-pupil spending on education, but now the
state has fallen to 48th place.
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- #17 In one school district
in California, children as young as five years old are being forced to
watch propaganda films that tout the benefits of "alternative lifestyles",
and parents are being told that no "opting out" will be permitted.
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- #18 The crime rate in
the San Diego school system is escalating out of control. The following
is what San Diego School Police Chief Don Braun recently told the
pressabout the current situation....
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- "Violent crime in schools has risen 31 percent.
Property crime has risen 12 percent. Weapons violations (have gone up)
almost 8 percent."
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- #19 Oakland, California
Police Chief Anthony Batts announced last year that due to severe budget
cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply
not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police
will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks,
identity theft and vandalism.
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- #20 Things have gotten
so bad in Stockton, California that the police union put up a
billboard with the following message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous
city in California. Stop laying off cops."
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- #21 During one recent
23 year period, the state of California built 23 prisons but
just one university.
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- #22 The farther you
look into the future, the worse California's financial problems become. According
to an article in the Wall Street Journal, California's unfunded pension
liability is estimated to be somewhere between $120 billion and
$500 billion at this point.
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- So could the state of California actually go bankrupt?
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- In Washington D.C., some lawmakers are now working
very hard behind the scenes to come up with a way to allow individual
U.S. states to declare bankruptcy.
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- If something like that is worked out in Washington, then
certainly the state of California would potentially be one of the first
states to take advantage of it.
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