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- Grover Norquist
On Election Day, we all vote for politicians and then wonder what they will do. When we vote on initiative questions, we know the good or bad news with certainty.
Three of the initiatives on Tuesday’s statewide ballot would impose new and higher taxes on Californians. They are all bad news for taxpayers, consumers, and employers.
Prop. 55 Means Damage to Small Business & Less Predictable Budgeting
Remember the “temporary” income tax hikes voters approved in 2012? Proposition 55 would extend those higher income tax rates for 12 years. Such an effort to extend the higher rates was widely predicted at the time of their approval four years ago. Should Prop. 55 be approved, expect spending interests to come back and push for another extension of these higher income tax rates in 12 years. The tax and spend folks in Sacramento view “temporary” tax hikes like a starter home. They don’t go away. They don’t die. They keep coming back. Forever.
California voters have a chance her to say no to this obvious ruse.
The higher tax rates hit many smaller businesses that pay taxes through the personal income tax code. Such a heavy reliance on income taxes paid by small businesses and high income households creates spikes in tax revenue when the economy strengthens and then deep drops in state tax revenue during recessions. California has watched this movie before. A gusher of money comes into government coffers during a tech bubble and the politicians spend like crazy on the “assumption” this will continue forever. When then the bubble bursts, revenue drops, and the politicians are at the throats of the middle class to finance the previously written budgets.
Taxpayers should vote NO on Proposition 55 to stop both of these ploys by the tax-and-spend crowd.
Bag Tax & Ban Measures Prove Green Groups’ Hypocrisy
There are two good ideas dealing with grocery bag taxes on the ballot in California.
A “NO” vote on Proposition 67 would repeal the ten cent tax on paper bags passed by the Sacramento politicians in 2014 (Senate bill 270) in a corrupt deal between the large grocery store companies and the “Greens.” That is a good idea.
The second best idea is to vote for Proposition 65, which, assuming voters uphold the paper bag tax by approving Proposition 67, blows up the corrupt bargain written into SB 270 that sends paper bag tax dollars large grocery store owners. That is right. Under present law, the bag tax is taking money from you and giving it to the grocery store owners. If Proposition 65 passes, this corrupt deal is over and the tax goes into an environmental cleanup fund.
It is instructive that the Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation—supposedly green groups—are fighting to keep this regressive tax in place and to keep the money flowing to the grocery chains.
To lower taxes and punish corruption, Californians should vote “YES” on 65 and “NO” on 67.
Billionaire Seeks To Make State Finances More Reliant On The Poor
And from the tax and spenders who promise to only tax “the rich” we have Proposition 56, a $2.00 per pack tobacco tax hike. Billionaire Democrat mega-donor Tom Steyer is bankrolling the campaign for this tax hike, and in doing so is providing the latest example of liberal hypocrisy.
Progressives like Steyer claim that conservative policies are bad for the poor, while pushing proposals like higher tobacco taxes that harm low-income taxpayers the most. It is no secret that smokers, on average, make far less than non-smokers. Many tobacco tax proponents claim the financial harm caused by tobacco tax hikes is for smokers’ own good. Yet if one wants to crack down on smoking, supporting Prop. 56, which would make state finances more reliant on people continuing to smoke, is an odd way to go about it.
Will Democrats Have Unchecked Ability To Raise Taxes
Regardless of the outcome of these ballot measures, if Democrats capture supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, the tax increase floodgates will open up in Sacramento. If Republicans lose enough state legislative races to drop below a third of the seats in both the Assembly and Senate, California taxpayers will be in a precarious situation for the next two years, with Democrats having the ability to meet the two-thirds majority vote requirement to raise taxes without any Republican votes.
On behalf of the other 49, states I urge Californians to set aside their recent practice of serving as the bad example to be avoided by other states and look to your own needs by voting against ballot measures that would further raise taxes in what is one of the most heavily taxed states in the union.
California taxpayers have suffered enough already. We can always use Illinois as the bad example.
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform