POLITICS: The insanely tall layer cake of California taxes

POLITICS: The insanely tall layer cake of California taxes

Higher taxes, Californians are told, will improve education, reduce traffic, and even fight climate change. But they never do. Instead, we face more and more taxes, like an insanely tall layer cake on some crazed reality-TV cooking show. Start at the bottom, with the state’s wildly high income tax.  The top tax rate is 12.3% on income and capital gains, plus a 1% “millionaire tax” surcharge, and a payroll tax with no wage cap. Together, those ca…