The hits just keep on coming over in California. We’ve blogged about it many times before. California is in a mess and working hard to drive out high net worth individuals and businesses of all sizes. Hope those fleeing California are taking a look at Arizona.

From Real Clear Politics, Carol Platt Liebau California’s sales and gas taxes are the highest in the country - and it has the highest vehicle license fees and the second-highest top-bracket income tax, too. Its corporate tax rates are the highest of all Western states, and for the fourth year in a row, a survey of 543 CEO’s found that California’s toxic combination of high taxes and intrusive regulations made it the worst place in the nation to do business. In fact, at the real root of California’s fiscal misery is the profligacy of arrogant, big-spending, left-wing legislators, who have treated taxpayers as if they exist only to support the government.

In fact, at the real root of California’s fiscal misery is the profligacy of arrogant, big-spending, left-wing legislators, who have treated taxpayers as if they exist only to support the government. Their attitude was exemplified in a recent statement from state assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), chairman of the state Budget Conference Committee, repudiating the governor’s call for the state to “live within its means”:

Well, there is this mantra out there - “live within our means” - and while that sounds really nice . . . and it sounds really responsible, it’s meaningless. Our means are completely within our control . . . We have just given away huge corporate subsidies in February; we have given away other tax reductions over many, many years; we’ve created tax loopholes; in good times, we routinely give away taxes, and then in lean times we never replace those tax deductions or close those loopholes. . . . So “live within our means” doesn’t mean anything. The fact is, we have a state with a population that have [sic] needs that we have a moral obligation to provide.