Yikes. That's a big sales tax bite in Los Angeles. But don't you worry, Los Angelinos, for King County in Washington (think Seattle) is not that far behind, at 10%, and you've been beaten to the punch by Cook County in Illinois, where some areas are as high as 11.50%.

Of course, those don't take into account the taxes for car rentals and hotel stays...which are higher than sales taxes. Why even in Oregon, Multnomah County (think Portland) the vehicle rental tax has just gone up to 17%.

Ouch! The problem is, many of these tax rates weren't written in with a sunset clause, and therefore are difficult to ratchet back down, once the budget crises pass.

Taxes should always have a sunset clause, requiring a periodic review and renewal. Over time, you will notice that we have tax crawl, where governments will find ways to spend your tax and expand their purpose and ignore the needs of society. Now, some libraries have Wii and Playstation rooms. This concerns me greatly that the Democratic Party is growing arrogant and failing to address the basic needs of society. Why are we willing to buy Wiis and Playstations, but not provide for health care of the uninsured? Now, I know how this works; different departments make a budget and if they don't spend all their money by the end of the year, it goes back into the general fund. So consider, that in essence, if libraries spend their excess on Wiis, the city has less money in the pot, which in turn appeals to the state for more funds (distributed under property tax collections), and in turn squeezes the state's funds. Ultimately, the Wii's cost goes up the chain and cuts money out of the big pot that could have been spent on addressing larger societal issues. That's very distressing.