[OPINION] California’s Pillage People Lead The Nation In Tax Collector Harassment

California is making a strong case that its pillage people – tax collectors, that is – are the worst in the nation. Should that be doubted, consider the Golden State’s enduring campaign against inventor Gilbert Hyatt, who in 1990 was awarded the patent for the first single-chip microprocessor.

The computer industry welcomed this invention, earning Hyatt a lot of money. He soon moved to Nevada, which has no state income tax. California’s Franchise Tax Board (FTB) claimed Hyatt lied about his residency, and that he owed $7.4 million in taxes for a six-month period from 1991 to 1992. Over more than 20 years, that sum has ballooned to between $55 million and $60 million.

In Nevada, California’s FTB goons ransacked Hyatt’s trash without warrant, told his business partners and doctors he was under investigation, and shared Hyatt’s personal information with the media. Hyatt sued the agency for harassment and violation of privacy. California tried to get the suit dismissed, but in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Hyatt had a right to go to trial. So he did.

In 2008, a Las Vegas jury awarded him $388 million, including $250 million in punitive damages. California’s tax hacks duly appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, calling the award “flagrantly excessive” and claiming they did nothing wrong.

In 2014, Nevada’s Supreme Court tossed much of the award, but Hyatt retained the $1.2 million for fraud. He had been awarded $85 million for emotional distress, but the court has ordered a new trial on the amount Hyatt deserves.

Despite the reduction in damages, the verdict was a clear beat-down of California’s Franchise Tax Board. The agency’s response was to continue its legal pursuit of Hyatt, with encouragement from U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr., a George H. W. Bush nominee who questions Hyatt’s motives and would place the burden of proof on the inventor.

Hyatt claims the FTB is contending that he was both a resident of California who owed them taxes, and a nonresident who owed them taxes. Now 76, Hyatt believes California officials are waiting for him to die, believing it would be easier to deal with his heirs.

Former California state senator and assemblyman Bill Leonard has said the FTB action against Hyatt “does amount to a persecution at this point.” Constitutional expert Erwin Chemerinsky of the UC Irvine law school, who is representing Hyatt free of charge, told reporters that “It’s a real injustice” what has happened to the inventor, who has been “denied due process.”

As far as can be discerned, California’s loss in Nevada courts did not prompt the Franchise Tax Board to fire or discipline any managers or employees. Nor has a state senator held public hearings on the Hyatt matter, as happened for the new span of the Bay Bridge after news reports raised concerns about safety problems. Nor has Governor Jerry Brown, an evangelist for the state’s high taxes, made an issue of the tax agency’s zealous persecution of Hyatt.

Taxpayers might conclude that FTB bosses believe they are above the law and unaccountable. The tax collectors have not exactly been transparent about how much money they are spending to pursue Hyatt.

“At some point, you have to wonder whether the costs are justified based on the amounts that taxpayers have laid out,” David Kline of the California Taxpayers Association told reporters. “The FTB has hired outside lawyers in addition to using their own staff resources. It’s a significant cost and it continues to grow.”

Meanwhile, as the Sacramento Bee reported, the attorneys general of 19 other states filed a brief siding with California, claiming the Nevada verdict had a “chilling effect” on tax investigators. Clearly, all states have their pillage people, but those states will be hard pressed to match California for sheer government greed.

Bill Leonard explains that in California, tax collectors “just pick on anyone successful.” Inventors of useful products such as the single-chip microprocessor will find better conditions in other states.

Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow with the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, and author of Hollywood Party: Stalinist Adventures in the American Movie Industry.

Via: Daily Caller

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Reid is out and Congress is surprisingly productive

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nev. arrives at the Capitol Building before the Senate convenes for a Sunday session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sunday, July 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

When voters pulled the lever for Republicans in 2014, they probably didn't have high expectations for the Congress they were creating. With two years left in President Obama's term, divided government and further gridlock seemed the best possible outcome.

Yet the 114th Congress has been surprisingly productive — and more importantly, it holds forth great promise on such major issues as free trade, criminal justice reform and tax reform. And although not all of the developments are or will be positive, none of the problems stem from the kind of institutional dysfunction that plagued the previous Senate, especially.

The classic but misleading metric for a Congress is the number of laws it enacts. This Congress has been better on that score than its immediate predecessors so far. But as Congress leaves for its August recess, it is wiser to measure its value based on precisely what it has accomplished, and what aspirations lawmakers can realistically harbor based on the tone of the place today.

For example, Congress took a huge step toward opening up America's trade footprint when it approved Trade Promotion Authority earlier this summer and extended a long-running African trade agreement. Members fully expect to vote on at least one major trade deal before President Obama leaves office.

Before that, the House and Senate approved a bicameral budget for 2016. This might not seem like much, but it marks the first time Congress has actually fulfilled its budget responsibilities since Obama took office. Congress also approved the Keystone Pipeline (Obama vetoed that one), and passed a so-called "doc-fix," which had been kicked down the road for years. It also passed a bill helping the victims of human trafficking.

Looking forward, there's no question that this Congress has a considerably less toxic atmosphere than the last one. Instead of contemplating a government shutdown or a default, lawmakers are talking about what they might be able to pass.

The major difference is that the Senate's new leadership has chosen a decidedly less autocratic style. The former Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be remembered best for blocking amendment votes. He essentially offered the minority only two choices — accept his demands or else stop action on bills altogether. This not only blocked individual senators' contributions to the process (including Democrats who might have benefited from the opportunity to contribute), but it also became a huge source of tension between the parties. Reid's decision to trample the minority's rights by invoking the so-called "nuclear option" did not help matters, either.

Now that senators are free to propose amendments, Democratic and Republican senators alike have more of a buy-in to the legislative process. In just the first major debate — over the Keystone pipeline — there were more amendment votes than there had been in the entire preceding year.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Nevada's Road to Nowhere - and Why You Need to Drive It

 While Traveling From Michigan to Lake Tahoe, One Road Tripping Fanatic Recounts Why US 50 is One of the Greatest Roads He's Ever Traveled 

I first became aware of the Loneliest Road (US 50) when I was planning a trip to Lake Tahoe to attend my niece's wedding.  I found out that in 1968 Life magazine had dubbed US 50 in Nevada the "Loneliest Road in America" and that the State of Nevada would provide travelers of US 50 with a certificate and pin once they had had traversed it.  Well that did it for me, I was going to travel US 50 to Lake Tahoe.  When I traced the route on the map I also found that US 50 would be the shortest route to my destination as it passes right through South Lake Tahoe on it's way into California.  Coming down out of the Rocky Mountains on I-70 you pick up US 50 in Utah at Salinas.  It then passes  I-15 through Delta, Utah before you enter Nevada. 

It was a marvelous experience to get off the interstate on to US 50 and have this marvelous 2 lane blacktop road all to yourself.  I made it to Ely the first day and spent the night and the next day I made it all the way to Carson City. 

What was amazing to me was the 17 mountain ranges I crossed and the spacious valleys between them.  It's like the mountains ripple across Nevada like the waves out on the sea. In December they are mostly show capped and you can see them looming in front of you for many miles before you ascend the pass that crosses them.   The road slithers like a reptile, snaking between mountains like an ancient river bed before disappearing behind the next mountain range you must cross.

The vistas along US 50 are breathtaking. Coming down the Austin Summit pass in the Toiyabe Range was amazing, in my humble opinion. Here, you can see for miles and miles. As I told many a friend and family member, I felt the horizon was 360 degrees and looked like I could see the natural curvature of the Earth. The land seemed to envelope me and I felt naked and exposed as if gravity would fail me and I would float up into the great American west. 

Via: National Review

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Judge Orders Government to Return $167,000 Seized From Motorhome Driver Visiting His Girlfriend

A federal judge in Nevada has ordered the government to return $167,000 that was seized from a man driving his motorhome on a highway two years ago. The man, Straughn Gorman, was traveling to visit his girlfriend. He was never charged with a crime.

The seizure originally occurred in January 2013, when Gorman was driving his motorhome from Delaware to visit his girlfriend in Sacramento, Calif.

Police stopped Gorman not once, but twice, within 50 minutes while he drove west on Interstate 80, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

In the first traffic stop, which occurred near Elko, Nev., a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper stopped the man for driving too slowly in the passing lane. Gorman refused to let the trooper search his vehicle, and the Nevada Highway Patrol officer allowed him to continue on without issuing any citations.

Less than an hour later, Gorman was stopped again by an Elko County Sheriff’s Office deputy, who the highway patrol trooper had arranged to pull Gorman over once more, court documents show. The deputy had a drug-sniffing dog with him, and a search of the motorhome was conducted.

In the two-minute video originally posted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the officer searched the vehicle, where he found $167,000 in cash stored in different places throughout the motorhome.

The officer told Gorman that the cash, his computer, cellphone and vehicle would all be seized under civil asset forfeiture laws.

Though the Elk County Sheriff’s deputy said the dog detected drugs in the motorhome, none were found, and Gorman was never charged with a crime.

Instead, he became another victim of civil asset forfeiture, a procedure that gives local, state and federal law enforcement the power to seize money and property if it’s suspected of being related to a crime.

Via: Daily Signal

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[COMMENTARY] Tax pledge numbers don't lie

Liberals and RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) hate the Taxpayer Protection Pledge with, as Diane Chambers once put it on Cheers, “the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.” And there’s a very good reason for that …

It works.

In signing the Tax Pledge, a candidate promises the voters of his or her district that he or she will “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

And the reason for fiscal conservatives to oppose any and all efforts to increase taxes isn’t to oppose tax hikes for the sake of opposing tax hikes. It’s to deny government additional funding to grow bigger.

Indeed, if your political philosophy is that of a limited government fiscal conservative, the best strategy for achieving that objective is to “starve the beast.” It’s just that simple.

And the simple fact is those who sign the Pledge vote against tax and fee (taxes by another name) hikes FAR more often than those who don’t. Rare is the case of an elected official -- such as Republican Assembly Speaker John Hambrick -- who completely disavows their promise to their voters and goes over to the “dark side.”

Citizen Outreach CEO Dan Burdish recently completed a study of the tax-hike votes by members of the Nevada State Assembly for the 2015 legislative session. He identified 32 recorded votes on bills that increased taxes or fees.

And Hambrick voted for every last one of them.

As did Republican Assembly Majority Leader Paul Anderson and defrocked former Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey.

Forget the Three Amigos. These are the Three RINOs.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, three Republican Pledge signers had perfect no-new-taxes voting records: Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, Assemblyman John Moore and Assemblywoman Shelly Shelton. The other six Pledge signers only rarely voted for a tax or fee hike, ranging from 2 transgressions to 9.

But not one of them voted for Gov. Brian Sandoval’s largest tax hike in Nevada history.

On the other hand, a number of self-described “conservative” Republicans who refused to sign the Tax Pledge literally voted like Democrats.

The best of the worst was Assemblyman David Gardner, who voted in favor of 22 of the 32 tax hikes. Assemblyman Chris Edwards voted for 26 tax hikes. Assemblyman Erv Nelson voted for 27 of them. Taxation Committee Chairman Derek Armstrong and Assemblyman James Oscarson voted for higher taxes 29 out of 32 times.

And Carson City Assemblyman P.K. O’Neill, who replaced Tax Pledge signer Pete Livermore this session, voted for 30 of the 32 tax hikes.

The numbers don’t lie and the lesson is clear: If you don’t want your taxes to go up so the government blob can grow bigger, only vote for candidates who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Via: Elko Daily

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Hillary, pay your interns: Column

As the high school girl who slept in a Hillary for President T-shirt for most of 2007, cried when she conceded to Barack Obama, railed at Congress during the Benghazi hearings and was an early follower of Texts from Hillary, I took heart from the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign had created.

When Hillary announced her second run for the White House, I felt my passion for politics reignite. I quickly applied for and was offered a position as a Hillary for America fellow to work on the campaign. I couldn't have been more excited — until I was told I'd have to move to Nevada and work full time on my own dime.

I couldn't believe my ears. I did not apply as a routine volunteer but as a fellow. Its application process with an elaborate screening and interview process was now revealed to be an ugly lie. If Hillary hopes to inspire young people, to prove she understands our interests she should offer substance to earn our votes.

Cheap, cheap

The campaign's "cheapness" is being lauded as a successful step away from her failure in 2008. Voters are evidently supposed to feel pleased with Hillary's miserly commercial flights (in first class) and economical Amtrak trips while discounting her unpaid staff's out-of-pocket expenses as simply smart business.

I had hoped a trailblazer would be more willing to break the mold of indentured servitude that haunts my generation. Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like discovering that Santa wasn't real.

Via: USA Today

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Nevada’s Common Core Tests Turn Into Costly Fiasco

A new, online standardized test designed to test Nevada schoolchildren on Common Core standards has been a huge fiasco in its first year, with the vast majority of students unable to event complete the test. The failure could expose the state to federal sanctions.

Under No Child Left Behind, states are supposed to test children in grades 3-8 each year in mathematics and reading. At least 95 percent of students must take the tests, or else a state can face federal sanctions such as a loss of millions of dollars in funds.

Nevada, on the other hand, was only able to test 37 percent of the 213,000 students it was supposed to, thanks to a cascade of glitches and computer problems that left students unable to complete their exams. In Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas metro area and over half the state’s students, only 5 percent were successfully tested.

Because so few were tested, Nevada’s department of education says it will be unable to issue grades for individual schools based on performance, like it is supposed to. The failure means Nevada is at risk of losing millions in federal funding, but such sanctions are unlikely in this case because the state made an honest effort that simply undone by technical shortfalls.

Blame for the fiasco is being placed squarely with the groups chosen to produce Nevada’s tests: the Smarter Balanced testing consortium, which is supposed to organize similar Common Core tests for member states, and the company it hired, Measured Progress. Measured Progress attempted to administer its test entirely via computer, but its servers were not up to the task of handling thousands of test-takers at once. Despite providing schools a testing window of nearly three months to avoid overloading, there were still repeated crashes that left students unable to make any progress. In response, Nevada has accused Measured Progress of breaching its $4 million contract with the state.

Even though it designed the tests, Measured Progress has tried to deflect the blame, pointing a finger back at Smarter Balanced instead. They claim the consortium provided an online testing platform which proved to be inadequate and unpredictable.

Via: Daily Caller

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Are Obamacare’s 22 Health Insurance Co-ops Near Financial Collapse?

Ominous signs are proliferating among 22 Obamacare health insurance co-ops of imminent financial collapses that could leave more than a million Americans without coverage, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group analysis.

All but one of the federally funded co-ops are experiencing accelerating net losses. President Obama’s signature health care reform program established the co-ops to provide non-profit competition to private sector health insurance providers.

Many of the 22 co-ops could soon follow an Obamacare co-op that defaulted earlier this year, suffering $163 million in operating losses in a single year.  That collapse left 120,000 customers without coverage on Christmas Eve.

“We’re certainly going to have fewer co-op’s by the end of the year,” Thomas Miller, a resident health care fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, told DCNF.

New figures compiled by Miller and Marie-Grace Turner, president of the Galen Institute, show that net losses for the co-ops reached a record $614 million in 2014. Both AEI and Galen are Obamacare critics.

The figure is nearly three times the $234 million in losses suffered through the first three quarters of 2014 as reported by Standards & Poor’s in a February 2015  report.  It means that the burn rate for the experimental Obamacare co-ops is quickening.

“All but one of the co-ops,” S&P noted, “reported negative net income through the first three quarters of 2014.”

Insurance ratings firm A.M. Best also warned in January that as of September 30, 2014, “the ratio of surplus notes outstanding to capital and surplus exceeded 100% for all of the co-ops.”

Arizona’s Meritus Mutual Health Partners co-op has long-term loans that are nearly 1,000 percent of the value of its capital and surplus, according to A.M. Best.

S&P identified the co-ops suffering the worst capital ratios as those in Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Maryland.

The Community Health Alliance co-op in Tennessee reported that it’s net losses were 314% of its federal funding, according to the S&P report.

Via: Spectacle Blog
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Reid’s Handpicked Successor in Nevada Senate Race Touts Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s (D., Nev.) preferred successor in the Nevada Senate race is touting her efforts to crack down on human trafficking despite Reid’s repeated moves to stall a Senate bill earlier this year that would help combat the practice.

After announcing that he would retire from the Senate earlier this year, Reid indicated he would back Catherine Cortez Masto, a former Democratic attorney general in Nevada, to replace him. The endorsement likely means Masto will benefit from Reid’s vaunted political machine in the closely watched race.

In a recent email to her campaign supporters, Masto noted that Congress had passed legislation to impose harsher penalties on sex traffickers and boost support for victims. “But there’s still so much more we could be doing,” she said in the email.

“I know what it means to make this a priority,” she said. “As attorney general, I cracked down on sex traffickers and fought for legislation to better provide resources for victims—and I intend to take that fight to the Senate.”

“I need you on our side now though if we’re going to keep making progress: Will you join me in calling for an end to human trafficking?” she continued.

In March, Reid led Senate Democrats in blocking the anti-human trafficking bill multiple times. Democrats objected to a provision in the legislation that they said would expand the Hyde Amendment—a law that prohibits federal funding of abortions—by barring a victims’ fund from receiving federal money for abortions.

However, Democrats admitted that they did not fully read the bill when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it. Republicans said they did not believe the provision was controversial because appropriations bills are typically subject to the Hyde Amendment.

The Senate eventually passed the anti-trafficking legislation in April by dividing the victims’ fund in two—fines from perpetrators would be directed to non-health care services while federal money for community health centers would still be subject to the Hyde Amendment. Victims could obtain abortions in cases of rape due to exemptions in the law. President Obama signed the bill into law the following month.

The Masto campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Via: WFB

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AP: Abortions decline in almost every state

Abortions have declined in nearly every state, according to a recent nationwide Associated Press survey.

In states both red and blue, in places where Republican-led initiatives against abortion have succeeded and in states where abortion rights remain protected, the number of abortions nationwide has declined by about 12 percent since 2010.

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In terms of percentage, Hawaii experienced the biggest decrease, at 30 percent. In 2010, there were 3,064 abortions performed in the state, compared to 2,147 last year. New Mexico followed, with 24 percent, along with Nevada and Rhode Island at 22 percent and Connecticut at 21 percent.Five of the six states with the biggest drop in abortions have not passed any laws restricting abortion clinics or providers, the AP reports.

States that have recently passed more anti-abortion legislation — like Missouri, Oklahoma and Indiana — have seen a drop of more than 15 percent, while blue states like New York, Washington and Oregon also had similar declines. Approximately 70 abortion clinics have closed in the U.S. since 2010, the AP reports, citing state officials and advocacy groups.

Abortions only rose in two states tracked by the AP. In Michigan, abortions increased by 18.5 percent between 2010 and 2014; in Louisiana, there was an increase of 12 percent.

A major factor in the decrease, the AP reports, is an overall decline in the national teen pregnancy rate, which reached its lowest rate in decades when it was last measured in 2010.

Ben Clapper, the executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, suggested to the AP that the increase in his state was partly owed to new abortion restrictions in neighboring Mississippi and Texas.

Via: Politico Europe

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HARRY REID BLOCKS CHANGES TO NEVADA PRESIDENTIAL CAUCUS RULES

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Minority Leader 

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

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 is at it again.

Known for meddling in politics at all levels in his home state of Nevada, the Democrat intervened earlier this week to help kill a GOP-backed bill in the Legislature that would have allowed Nevada to trade its presidential caucuses for primaries, seen as friendlier to establishment candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

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 who might be tougher for Democrats to beat.

The surprise outcome exasperated Republicans from Las Vegas to Washington and served notice that even as Reid heads into retirement, Republicans will have to get around him if they hope to win Nevada in 2016. And it was just the latest move from a masterful tactician who rules his home state’s political scene like no other and is determined to keep the White House and his own Senate seat in Democratic hands though his name will never again be on the ballot.

“Harry’s an icon, there hasn’t been anybody in politics like him. Whether you like his politics or not he’s carved out a spot that quite frankly is unique in the history of Nevada politics,” said Republican 

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV)

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, a former state party chairman. “He’s a results-oriented guy, and until we really hug ‘what are they doing, and how do we compete with that’ there’ll continue to be days where we struggle.”

For Reid, 75 and blind in one eye as the result of an accident while exercising earlier this year, working against the primary bill was just one of his recent moves designed to boost Democratic prospects in Nevada.

Some of his top lieutenants run the state Democratic Party and will be instrumental in working for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former secretary of state and first lady surrounded herself with some of Reid’s allies in the immigrant community when she visited the state last month, and she plans another appearance in a couple of weeks.

Via: Breitbart

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Tea Party activist Niger Innis considering congressional run

Niger Innis, a well-known black tea party activist, is seriously contemplating a Republican run for a U.S. House seat in Nevada in 2014.

Reached by The Daily Caller on Thursday, Innis confirmed his interest in running for Nevada’s 4th congressional district seat currently held by freshman Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford.

The 45-year-old conservative activist and Nevada resident is the chief strategist for TheTeaParty.net and national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the organization led by his father Roy Innis. He’s also appeared frequently as a talking head on cable TV.

Innis, who played a role on former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign in 2012, told TheDC that he’s set up an exploratory committee, has been speaking with campaign consultants and is raising money.

“It is time to make Congress functional and effective again,” his exploratory website states. “If Niger ran for Congress, he’ll work to make that happen with a common sense, conservative approach to doing what is best for you, your family and our country.”

If all goes well in raising money and organizing both local and national support, Innis will pull a trigger on a run, he said.

According to an invitation obtained by TheDC, Cain, billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, Jeb Bush, Jr., and Nevada state GOP activist Amy Tarkanian were among those who attended a fundraiser for the Innis exploratory committee on Tuesday night.

The district covers a large geographic across Nevada, including both Las Vegas and  a number of rural counties.

Via: Daily Caller

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A Tale of Two States, CA and NV: Part III

Nevada’s aggressive pro-business policies, and the agencies charged with selling the state, have produced decidedly mixed results. While the state has made some gains in reducing unemployment, challenges lie ahead.

Nevada’s aggressive pro-business policies, and the agencies charged with selling the state, have produced decidedly mixed results. While the state has made some gains in reducing unemployment, challenges lie ahead.

As described in Part II, several businesses — such as Starbucks and Apple — have expanded operations in Nevada as a result of direct lobbying from different business development agencies.

Smaller firms have moved to Nevada, as well. Orange County-based Kareo, an online back office service provider for health care offices, recently announced plans to expand 112 jobs to Southern Nevada. Altogether, thousands of jobs have left California for Nevada.  In fact, California lost 5.2 percent of its businesses in 2012 (though some were closed and did not move).

Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows an improving Nevada. Down from a high of 14 percent two years ago, unemployment stands at 9.5 percent. There are more jobs in 10 out of 11 sectors of the economy than there were 12 months ago, or even two years ago. Government, manufacturing, business services, education and mining are all doing well, for example.

But there is more than just businesses and jobs coming to Nevada from California — people are too.

Population growth

While California’s population is flat-lining, Nevada’s is projected to grow. At least part of that reason is the new taxes enacted last year in California.

From a Fox News report describing the effects of Proposition 30:

Nevada tax accountant George Ashley said he’s received more than 100 inquiries from higher-earning Californians about the possible tax advantages and feasibility of relocating to a state with lower taxes.

“We have had a 10-fold increase from various parts of California, particularly Los Angeles and the Bay Area where many people are seeking a way to leave the state,” said Ashley, who lives just over the California state line in Lake Tahoe, Nev. “They are fed up with the situation and they feel like they are being unfairly treated.”

This trend has real impacts: Between 1999 and 2009, California lost $27 billion in tax revenue because residents moved to other states. In that same time period, Nevada’s added $12.4 billion to its coffers from residents of other states that moved to the Silver State.

Via: California Political Review

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