Dr. Laffer Proposes a 5.8% Flat Tax for All Californians

San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Sacramento, today released a new book by economist Art Laffer on how to turn around California’s ailing economy. In Eureka! How to Fix California, Dr. Laffer undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the state’s economy and offers solutions on how to restore the state to prosperity. Among Dr. Laffer’s proposals is a 5.8 percent flat tax for all Californians.

Eureka! surveys California’s economic history and fiscal policies beginning with Governor Ronald Reagan. Dr. Laffer shows the results of public policies that have powered extraordinary growth for the state, and those that produced economic decline. In Eureka!, he examines:

• the economic performance of all 50 states by comparing tax policies -- including personal income tax rates as well as corporate, estate, and sales taxes
• the economic performance of right-to-work states versus forced-union states·
• Californians’ Form 1040s over a 15-year period to evaluate the migration patterns of Californians at various income levels.
  
• the root causes of California’s housing booms and busts, and
• the power of the unions, bureaucrats, and other special interests that have held back the state from overcoming its fiscal problems.
  

Dr. Laffer concludes Eureka! with recommendations for reform, including a flat personal income tax rate of 5.8 percent for all Californians. “California has been on a rollercoaster ride up and down the Laffer Curve,” said Dr. Laffer. “How do you think I got the idea in the first place?”

Eureka! How to Fix California, is available at http://www.pacificresearch.org/bookstore/eureka-how-to-fix-california. To receive a review copy of the book or to interview Dr. Art Laffer, contact Laura Dannerbeck at 415-955-6145 or Rowena Itchon at 415-955-6123.

About PRI

For 32 years, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has championed freedom, opportunity, and individual responsibility through free-market policy solutions. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. For more information, please visit our web site at www.pacificresearch.org.