To each his zone

Phil Mickelson probably isn’t going to receive much sympathy on his gripes over tax hikes due to the state of California passing Prop 30 in last November’s election.

After posting a six-under 66 in the final round of the Humana Challenge, Mickelson launched into a mini-rant on taxes, which initially began with a question about Steve Stricker’s semi-retirement and he mentioned the “political situation the last couple of months.”

He went on to imply he might cut back in playing events, too, because it’ll cost him more to compete after taxes. (I’m not clear on how that works.)

Prop 30, a sales and income tax increase initiative to fund California schools, “imposes a 13.3% tax rate on taxable income over $1,000,000–a percentage increase of 29.13% over current “millionaires tax” policy of 10.3%.”

Basically, Mickelson, a resident of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., said it was going to make such a massive impact on his life that he’d need to make “drastic changes.” He didn’t want to specify details at that time.

“I’m not sure what exactly I’m going to do yet,” said Mickelson after placing tied for 37th. “I’ll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I’m not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn’t work for me right now.”

Targeted. Mmmkay. I think I hear the world’s tiniest violin playing in the background.

Does he mean that he’ll move to somewhere like Florida or Nevada or Alaska, among the seven states without income tax? That would mean uprooting his family, which seems kind of extreme, especially since his kids range from ages 10 to 14-ish.

Get excited for Phil’s pre-tourney press conference at Torrey Pines next week!

“I’ll probably go into it more next year or next week,” said Mickelson. “But if you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate’s 62, 63 percent. So I’ve got to make some decisions on what I’m going to do.”

Then, there’s this:

Q. Well, I mean I understand the 60 percent part of the equation, but in the TOUR’s plan, you guys put about as much money aside as you want. It’s treated differently under tax laws than most anybody else’s tax plans. Where most people can only put away $45,000 or $50,000, you guys can put as much away as you want. And so at the end you guys end up with a much larger pot of gold than most people can.

PHIL MICKELSON: But when it comes out, it’s still taxed at the same 62 percent rate.

Q. Well, you’re still making that kind of money. That’s if you’re still in that bracket.

PHIL MICKELSON: (No response.)

Prop 30 experts, have at it.

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)