April 15 used to be simply the day that federal and state income tax returns were due.
However, with political angst running amok, it's been transformed into Tax Day with capital letters, pitting those who believe they're taxed too much by wasteful governments against those who contend that taxes are too low and vital services are dying.
Thus, hundreds of tea party tax protesters gathered at the Capitol on Thursday while union leaders and liberal politicians ramped up their pro-tax rhetoric.
The California Teachers Association touted its pending ballot measure that would repeal some big corporate tax loopholes that the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger enacted last year as they temporarily hiked personal income, sales and car taxes.
Meanwhile, the union-backed March for California's Future, which entered Sacramento County on Thursday and will arrive at the Capitol next week, trumpeted a $40 billion increase in taxes on corporations and upper-income Californians "to obviate further cuts to the public service programs that polls show a majority of California voters support."
The liberal California Budget Project issued a report contending that poor Californians pay proportionately much higher taxes than the wealthy, albeit with shaky logic and somewhat outdated data. The group also argues that "California is a moderate tax state."
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