One Man’s Loophole…
With Assembly Speaker Bass’ announcement of her secret plan to raise revenues to address the state budget deficit, the war of words will be as important as battle over numbers.
According to the Speaker, part of Assembly Democrats’ budget solution would be up to $6.4 billion in new revenues, much of it from closing "tax loopholes." This is where language matters.
What is a tax loophole? Classically, it means an unintentional characteristic of a law that allows a taxpayer to circumvent the law’s intent without actually breaking that law. A good example might be the notorious "yacht tax loophole," which allows boat buyers to avoid sales taxes by delaying possession of expensive, out-of-state purchases. But in current political usage, a tax loophole has become any tax law that treats any taxpayer differently from some accepted or announced norm. This is an insidious distortion of political communication, which twists legitimate tax policies – decided clear-eyed by the state Legislature – into flim-flamming tax avoidance.
Do we need an investigation of Prop 66?
Over the last two weeks of October 2004, Gov. Schwarzenegger and billionaire Henry Nicholas led a campiagn to defeat Prop 66, a ballot initiative that would have eased some of the most onerous parts of California’s "three strikes" law. With Schwarzenegger’s campaigning and Nicholas’ money, the "no" campaign made political history, taking an initiative that seemed certain to pass and sending it to a shocking defeat.
The "no" vote grew by nearly 30 points in two weeks. Independent pollsters say they have never seen such dramatic movement in a ballot initiative.
An unused pen is pretty mighty, too
It has been said that the "Pen is mightier than the sword." But, apparently an unused pen is pretty powerful, too. In a study just released by the Milken Institute’s California Center on the 2007 Hollywood Writers’ Strike, it is claimed that the strike will cost California’s economy a staggering $2.1 billion and 37,700 jobs by the end of this year.
The authors of the study, Kevin Klowden, Anusuya Chatterjee and Ross DeVol, say that the writer’s strike was one of the factors that tipped California into a recession.
According to the study, the strike rippled through the economy to the following effect:
Villaraigosa takes proactve approach to bringing Football back to LA
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent this letter yesterday to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino:
Dear Mayor Menino:
Tonight is truly an historic night. It is hard to believe that it has
been twenty one – long – years since the last time the Lakers beat the
Celtics in the NBA Finals. Tonight we renew this great American
tradition.The only thing harder to believe is that it’s been more than two
decades since the great Boston Celtics have tasted the sweet victory of
an NBA Championship. The year was 1986. Hair was big. Shorts were
short. And Michael Dukakis was preparing his historic run for
president.I truly expected our great rivalry of the 1980s to carry into the 1990s
– particularly as the Lakers and Celtics continued to assemble a
pantheon of NBA legends: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Derek Fisher,
Phil Jackson, Pervis Ellison, Bryant Stith, Vitaly Potapenko and Rick
Pitino.