According to the Associated Press, the President of the California Chamber of Commerce, Allan Zaremberg, weighed in on the current debate taking place in the State Capitol over Governor Brown’s proposal to balance the state’s book, in part, with a massive tax increase to be placed on a June Special Election ballot…
"There will be criticism, wherever it comes from, and I think if people address some of these issues about solving the problem once and for all, that they (will) have the support they need in their community," Zaremberg said.
Having read various press accounts of Zaremberg’s statements, he also apparently reminded reporters that the CalChamber backed the 2009 budget deal that included the implementation of massive tax increases (the same ones that are expiring and Brown wants to extend for five more years).
The question that obviously comes to everyone’s mind is – why would a Chamber of Commerce want to support massive tax increases on every family (of consumers) in California? The answer, unfortunately, is that this Chamber of Commerce has a leadership team that has always been more inclined to cut deals and “play the game” than to stand tall on principle. Such as the shameful way they helped broker the 2009 budget deal that simultaneous slammed average taxpayers with hikes in their income, sales and car taxes while creating multi-billion dollar tax breaks for big business (If that sounds smarmy and inappropriate – you are right on track).
This same Chamber started unloading some negative television spots on Jerry Brown last Summer, only to literally pull them down as soon as the then-Attorney General complained to some of their Board Members (many of whom are Democrats).
I would go so far as to say that had the CalChamber not been so supportive of the 2009 budget deal, it likely never would have occurred, and we wouldn’t be having a debate today about whether to extend these sales, income and car taxes, because they never would have been enacted in the first place. And the deeper cuts that would have been required in 2009 without those taxes would have put us in a much better position today to deal with the current budget deficit.
I’m not trying to say that everything that the CalChamber does is bad, or that the people there are not good people (I have friends there) – but for the CalChamber to weigh into yet another budget fight, on the side of big government over the taxpayers, is a sign that it is a Chamber that does not prioritize private sector job creation. What a tragedy.
Allen Zaremberg is a smart guy. So it is not hard to figure out that he was purposely vague in his remarks and on what a budget deal should look like. As an optimist, I would like to assume that the CalChamber is looking for spending and pension reforms to be placed on the ballot. But since Zaremberg declined to actually say that, or lay out any specific elements of an acceptable plan – one can only look to the 2009 deal for some insights as to what the CalChamber might do. In that deal, the Chamber signed off on a “revenue smoothing measure” in Prop. 1A that was sold as a spending cap, but was proven to be as full of holes as swiss cheese.
Governor Brown’s plan calls for pulling back some of the sweetheart deals the CalChamber got in that ’09 deal. Maybe all it takes to get the CalChamber onboard is pulling that stuff out of the plan?
As it stands, Zaremberg’s vague comments serve only as a reminder that unlike in many other states, where the state Chamber of Commerce stands with the taxpayers, here in California it has not been that way in the past, and it appears that based on Zaremberg’s comments, the CalChamber stands ready to walk away from taxpayers again. I wonder if Brown’s plan would be so popular with the CalChamber if you took out income, sales and car taxes, and replaced them with a split roll tax, or maybe a tax on corporations with 1,000 or more employees?
Wouldn’t it have been refreshing to have the CalChamber simply say, "It is time for state government to live within its means, and for California taxpayers to not be hit big tax increases during a recession. We also recognize that California’s high tax rates, especially when compared to the lower tax rates of almost every other state, put California businesses as a competitive disadvantage. We oppose any machinations in the Capitol that lead to a vote to place taxes on a special election ballot." — Wishful thinking!
In closing, if the CalChamber actually has some “lines in the sand” in terms of reforms it feels need to be part of a deal, they should spell them out for everyone to understand. Unfortunately their vagueness only leads one to the conclusion that they are ready to sign onto any deal that comes along. Disappointing.