Reminder! Back in Feb 20th, 2009, our “wonderful” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger “temporarily” raised our sales tax by 1%. These tax hikes rarely go back down, some would probably argue that they never go back down. Which is probably true. In any case, your lease just got more expensive, so keep that in mind when you get into a lease. Since our taxes are paid on a monthly basis, changes like this will affect our payments. This means, my $418.88 payment is going up to about $423.07. Anyway, I don’t want to get overly political here, just keeping my fellow Californians informed. I know, it doesn’t make sense to raise taxes when unemployment is at 10%+ in our state, but hey, that’s how the ball rolls around these parts. Meh.

Arnie, you and your Sacto clowns blow! Dang, looks like I better make my big purchases this month…

From Sabrix.com

Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California budget package aimed at addressing the $42 billion deficit. A 1% sales and use tax increase is planned for April 1, 2009 to bring in new revenue.

Effective April 1st, the basic California statewide rate will be 8.25%. Many of California’s counties, cities, towns, and communities have special taxing jurisdictions referred to as districts. The district taxes are imposed in addition to the basic statewide rate.

Selected city sales and use tax rates effective April 1st:

* Anaheim 8.75%
* Berkeley 9.75%
* Los Angeles 9.25%
* Sacramento 8.25%
* San Francisco 9.50%