Author: Michele Steel

It’s the same old song and dance again in Sacramento. Only this time it’s to the tune of $450 per year for every California household.

Do you want the government following your car every day? Most of us don’t like that Orwellian vision, but a tax scheme brewing in the

The proposal to create an additional tax on the retail sale of lumber currently coursing its way through the Legislature is an example of the

Despite serious constitutional and legal questions, the Board of Equalization (BOE), in 2007, approved a 1550 percent tax increase on “flavored malt beverages.” Flavored malt

Each month, Board of Equalization members meet to hear tax appeals relating to nearly every facet of California’s complicated tax code. Sometimes the outcome of

Hard as it might be to imagine, California businesses won a small but important victory last year.  Next year, legislators will have an opportunity to

It
seems like we can’t turn on the news without hearing about skyrocketing gas
prices, California’s persistent double-digit unemployment rate, and families
struggling to make ends meet.

The
cost of groceries continues to climb everyday as items such as dish soap,
produce, and dairy are marked up because of rising commodity prices.

In
this climate of uncertainty, every nickel counts. Yet efforts to raise taxes
middle and lower income families continue. 
One of them is coming before the Long Beach City Council in just a
matter of days.

At
their meeting on tonight, the Council will vote on a proposal to ban recyclable
plastic grocery bags and impose a ten-cent tax on paper bags at the checkout
stand.  Put simply, a yes vote on this
proposal is a vote to increase taxes that brings with it little promise of
benefit to Long Beach residents, puts hundreds of manufacturing jobs at risk,
and does nothing to strengthen our recycling infrastructure.

Originally posted in the Orange County Register.

Sophisticated criminal organizations have one
incentive: money. They find a need and fill it. It doesn’t matter whether the
product is narcotics, prostitution or terror, the goal is the same; more money.
They use that money to fund their other illegal activities.

As a result of rising tobacco taxes across the
country, these organizations are increasingly moving to cigarette smuggling for
the potential profit. Cigarette-related crime is rising across the U.S. In California,
1.4 billion packs were estimated to have been consumed in fiscal year 2005-06.
And 209 million packs were estimated to have been sold tax-free, resulting in a
$182 million revenue loss for the state. That’s more than the general fund
budget for Huntington Beach.

There’s no doubt that higher cigarette taxes lead
to less smoking; that’s a basic law of economics. According to the State Board
of Equalization, "For cigarettes and nearly all goods there is an inverse
relationship between prices and sales. Higher prices almost always result in
lower sales if there are no other major changes in government policy, consumer
preferences or other factors."

In the Star Trek original series episode "A
Piece of the Action," Captain Kirk invents a complicated and confusing card
game, which he calls Fizbin.  The rules are depressingly similar to
California’s sales tax code.

An excerpt from Wikipedia: "Each
player gets six cards, except for the player on the dealer’s right, who gets
seven. The second card is turned up, except on Tuesdays. Kirk deals one player
two jacks, which are a ‘half-fizbin.’ When the player says he needs another
jack, Kirk warns that a third jack is a "shralk" and is grounds for
disqualification. With two jacks, one wants a king and a deuce, except at
night, when one wants a queen and a four." 
As the game proceeds, the rules keep changing.

Some examples of California’s fizbin tax
code:

Food products in California are exempt from
the sales tax, "unless otherwise specified."