The saying, as I recall, is 'The power to tax

is the power to destroy', but there's a corollary: The power to tax is the power to rob.
Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You'll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.
Yeah. Right. A state that was paying refunds the past while with vouchers, which the state would not accept as payment, is going to give you a bigger refund. Uh huh. Pull the other one, etc. And I love the 'forced' part; if someone did this on the street it'd be called armed robbery, but when the government does it it's a 'forced, interest-free loan'.

The provision is one of numerous maneuvers state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved in the summer to paper over the state's deficit. Many of the changes, including the extra withholding, were little noticed outside of Sacramento.
I wonder, did any of the major media professionals notice this at all? If they did, the apparently didn't bother to mention it since it was so 'little noticed'.

But(of course) at least some of the experts are saying it's no big deal:
But Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, wasn't so sure.

"It's having a relatively small impact on people's income," Levy said, pointing out that many families will receive only $12 to $40 less each month.
Maybe this jackass has never been there, but I've had months where losing $12 to $40 bucks would have ruined me; I(and I include back when still married and the kids were small) often finished the month with nothing as was; having that much less to start with...

And they do this at the start of the holiday shopping season; aren't they a bunch of geniuses running the People's Republic of California?