With legislative committees now meeting on bill proposals, and potential tax hikes, a statewide taxpayer advocacy group has issued its annual report card showing how lawmakers scored when it comes to legislation concerning new taxes for Californians.
The scores were compiled from 2021 floor votes on 14 key bills, Scott Kaufman, legislative director with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), told the Northern California Record. All told, 28 legislators received an A or B. Only one got a C. For the 90 remaining legislators, 16 received a D, and 74 flunked.
In total, 11 bills that negatively impact taxpayers were signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, Kauffman said, but not all the news was bad.
“Eleven bills we opposed failed to make it out of the legislature; five bills we supported were signed by the governor,” Kaufman said. “In all, we went 17 for 34 in the 2021 legislative session. We batted .500. Not bad for a taxpayer group in California.”
Some bills representing significant tax hikes have already died in the 2022 legislative session, including a state-run healthcare system, but the constitutional amendment tax-hike funding aspect, ACA 11, could still be acted on.
“Any year the Legislature is in session is a bad year for taxpayers,” Kaufman said. “Success is often measured not in how many pro-taxpayer bills are passed but by how many anti-taxpayer bills we manage to stop. That said, the last two years have been better than I expected. I think a lot of that has to do with the gubernatorial recall last year and the midterms this year. The Legislature knows election years are not a good time to try anything too crazy.”
Still, there are bills now pending before committees that could still pass, Kaufman said.
ACA 1, which has been around for a number of years, would lower the threshold for passing certain taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent.
“Prop 13 set those at two-thirds of the vote and over the years, they have tried to whittle that down – successfully for school bonds – and every few years, they’ll try to do it again,” Kaufman said. “And we think those votes should be two-thirds votes; it’s s direct attack on Prop 13 – it’s in Prop 13.”
Another bill, AB 1771, would increase taxes on home sellers.
“I think the theory behind it is to tax gains made by flippers, but you know people move and that's going to hurt people,” Kaufman said. “For up to seven years, you are going to be taxed at least a portion extra if you move out your house.”
The wealth tax proposed in AB 2289 and ACA 8 are also raising questions about how they could impact more people than the very rich.
“It’s kind of alarming that they're putting a tax on someone's worldwide assets – not even what you own in California – it's what they own everywhere in the world, and California thinks that they can tax people on that,” Kaufman said. “It's kind of like the camel’s nose under the tent thing – that California thinks they can tax rich people’s assets everywhere, why can't they tax you for the condo you've got in Florida?”