[jahewson]

Actually California has the 4th highest taxes in the nation behind New York, New Jersey, and Conneticut. It has the highest income tax, but that's because its other taxes are relatively low, in particular property taxes which were evicerated by Prop 13. California's current tax system is actually regressive, with the poorer section of society shouldering more of the tax burden than the richer segment.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Taxes-101/Sta...

Also the tech industry holds an awful lot of wealth outside the US, in tax havens such as Ireland. And while taxes in California are high by US standards, many European countries (with excellent public transport systems) tax at higher rate still, for example sales tax in the UK is 20%.

The state of California is chronically underfunded because it does a poor job of taxing the people who actually have money. Not because the money isn't well spent (some 40% of it goes on education alone).

[SilasX]

>The state of California is chronically underfunded because it does a poor job of taxing the people who actually have money.

So does everyone else. The reason it's so hard to tax the wealth of the rich is not because they're masters of political manipulation but because they're -- as you note -- much better at (legally) restructuring their activities so that the wealth does not pass through a nexus that a given jurisdiction controls.

[disgruntledphd2]

To be fair, Ireland is just used as a stop on the wayto the Bahamas/Caymans, for most tech company money. It does pump up our GDP though, which makes people think we are doing well, so at least we get that.

Source: Irish person who works in tech.