In the last fifty years, California has done ONE thing right. In 1978, against the advice of almost all the politicians in BOTH parties, almost two-thirds of CA voters approved Howard Jarvis’s Proposition 13 – which constitutionally capped runaway property rate increases. This tax revolt launched the big California Miracle of the 1980s and 1990s. Of course, thanks to the highest income and sales taxes in the country, California’s economy has stalled out, and now there are renewed calls from Democrats to repeal Prop. 13.
A new study by Laffer Associates and CTUP shows the damage of property taxes. When property taxes rise, home values fall because the higher taxes get capitalized into the value of the house.
The table below shows where property taxes are highest and lowest across the U.S. Amazingly, the northeastern states, which are calcifying, impose property taxes that are as much as TEN TIMES higher than in the southern states. New Jersey, where the average single-family-home property tax hit $9,500 in 2022 compares with the average of $928 in West Virginia and $1,022 in Alabama.
The government unions say that high property taxes are associated with better public services and schools, but that is a lie. New Jersey and Illinois have the highest property taxes and are very near the bottom in the quality of public services.
Several states, including Tennessee, are now examining Proposition 13-style property tax caps. Yes, it is time for another revolt among homeowners across the country.
This chart may look familiar to regular Hotline readers. This version is updated through June 2023.
Anything the government operates or subsidizes has exploding costs. So health care and education are the components of the economy with the steepest rise in prices over the last 25 years. Education is 75% run by the government and health care is 50% government.
Meanwhile, technology, TVs, computers, clothing, electronics, and toys have fallen rapidly in price. These are goods that are highly impacted by international trade. It’s a good reminder that free trade keeps prices low and makes goods and services more affordable for the masses. Competition is a good thing.
How’s this for media bias: in recent days evening news shows spent over 162 minutes on the Trump indictment. The Media Research Center has found that was a full 19 times (!) more than the 8 minutes and 32 seconds the networks devoted to the Hunter Biden scandal.
Major Network Coverage: Trump vs. Hunter Biden Scandal
So we were thrilled to see North Dakota Governor Doug Burghum – a GOP presidential candidate – attack the media for its one-sided coverage. George Stephanopoulos used almost all of his Sunday ABC show to trash Trump. When Burgum came on to discuss his GOP presidential race he was harangued by Stephanopoulos with Trump questions – of course.
Burgum responded that he had just “listened to 15 minutes of legal debate on this and I'm sure you could run it again 7/24. But I'm running against Joe Biden and that's what we're going to be talking about.”
Stephanopoulos kept badgering Burgum to attack Trump – but he wouldn’t take the bait. Instead, he accused the TV networks of obsessing about Trump “so that [you] don't have to talk about inflation or Afghanistan or the Russian invasion, the fact we're in a cold war with China.”
It was a tutorial for all Republicans about how to deal with the media-feeding frenzy. You can watch the interview here. Burghum is becoming an overnight superstar.
4) Another COVID Lockdown Con Artist Gets a Biden Promotion
This scandal keeps happening over and over. All of the worst lockdown artists in the states – and the people who did great injury to our economy and our children – keep getting rewarded with primo jobs in Washington. There are many Democrats who want Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to run for president – even though she shut down the entire state economy and schools for months on end.
So we guess we can’t be shocked at this latest headline. SHOULD BE shocking, but sadly it is par for the course. Cuomo aide David Zucker ran the most catastrophic Covid policy of any state - with the possible exception of New Jersey. And note the subhead – this hire happened back in January, but the first media report about it was just a couple of days ago. The very worst lockdown and coverup artists continue to fail upwards.
5) New Bank Regulations Could Reduce Bank Lending by $100 Billion
We have a prime example of how excessive regulation strangles the economy. The FDIC and Federal Reserve bank regulators want to force banks to increase their capital requirements to prevent more bank failures, as we saw with Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year. But as a piece by CTUP co-founder Stephen Moore and David Bahnsen (top investment guru and a co-chair of the CTUP Economic Advisory Council) points out, this policy makes as much sense as telling physically fit and trim Americans to go on a diet in order to reduce obesity.
The new regs would have had NO effect on the SBV failure. But the higher reserve rules will require healthy banks to withhold more than $100 billion from their lending window to comply with the new rules. This will make it harder for new business start-ups to get loans and start-up capital to open their doors. Even the Fed’s own studies show that banks are NOT under-capitalized.
This rule would come at a time when America needs MORE, not LESS investment. How dumb can Washington be?
