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Friends of the Fourth
District:
Lawmakers in Sacramento are at it again. Now that the Governor has
arbitrarily tripled our vehicle license fees and a half-cent sales
tax increase seems all but inevitable, democratic assembly members
want to give cities and counties the power to add yet another layer
of taxes onto local residents. AB 1690, which has already passed the
Assembly, would allow cities and counties to ask a mere majority of
voters to approve an income tax to help pay for public safety and
healthcare. The power to tax income has traditionally been reserved
for Federal and State governments. Never in California’s history has
a local government been given this authority.
On June 24, 2003 I asked the Board of Supervisors to oppose passage
of AB 1690. This bill is nothing but a shameful attempt by
Sacramento to continue the spending addiction that has thrown this
state into a $38 billion deficit. This bill is not about public
safety. It's about the State's outrageous spending habits that need
to be kept in line. Rest assured that as soon as such a tax was
passed by local voters, state funding would be withdrawn by the
legislature to cover yet another state crisis.
It is not, and should not, be the responsibility of local
governments to raise personal income tax. This legislation will set
the stage for a dangerous precedent. AB 1690 is a quiet attempt to
pass on a politically unpopular mechanism to local governments who
will be forced to use it under the draconian cuts the state is faced
with in the coming months and years. Rather than confronting the
real issues facing the California, the legislature is attempting to
once again shirk its responsibilities on the backs of local
residents.
Virtually every local government body in the state has opposed
AB1690. I hope the state Senate will do the right thing and listen
to the will of the people.
DON KNABE
Supervisor, Fourth District
County of Los Angeles
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