Is this the California Democrats’ way of admitting taxes are too high?
AGENDA 21 RADIO
By SUSAN SHELLEY | letters@ocregister.com
Orange County Register
It’s almost like a quiet confession that socialism has been wrong the whole time. In California, the left is fighting to bail out the rich.
Three bills pending in Sacramento would allow the highest-earning Californians to get around the federal tax reform’s new $10,000 limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes.
Two of the bills were authored by state Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, the termed-out Senate leader who is running to the left of Dianne Feinstein for the U.S. Senate this November. The other was introduced by Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Inglewood, whose liberal credentials are in evidence in her legislative scorecard ratings — 93 percent from the California Labor Federation (96 percent for “lifetime floor votes,”) and 30 percent from the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.
If these three bills had been introduced by Republicans, Democrats would be on television every day denouncing the bills, the authors, the party, the president, the rich and capitalism generally.
Instead, you probably haven’t heard a word about them.
Senate Bill 227 by de León originally would have created a charity called the “California Excellence Fund” within the state’s general fund. Then “donations” would earn the giver a dollar-for-dollar credit on state taxes, transforming a state tax payment into a charitable contribution that was fully deductible on the taxpayer’s federal income tax return.
The bill has been modified in an apparent effort to match the characteristics of much smaller programs in other states that the IRS and the courts have allowed. Currently, SB 227 would set up a “charity” within county treasuries, and the state tax credit for “donations” would be 85 percent instead of 100.
A second bill by de León, SB 539, would expand the existing College Access Tax Credit. Taxpayers who contribute to the California Educational Facilities Authority would receive a state tax credit equal to 75 percent of their “donation.”
Under Burke’s Assembly Bill 2217, the state Treasury would sell “Golden State Credits” for 90 cents each to nonprofit organizations, school districts, colleges and universities. They could then sell the credits to taxpayers for $1, and taxpayers would get a credit on their state taxes equal to 80 percent of their purchase amount.
The undisguised purpose of these three bills is to help high-income Californians pay less in federal taxes.
Why?
Because California needs rich people. They’re paying the bills for a lot of other people.
That’s not usually what you hear from politicians who court the Bernie Sanders voters. The usual line is more like “Down with the 1 percent.”
But if the 1 percent choose to move to a state with lower taxes — they have 49 options — California’s general fund will look like a meteor crater.
Two-thirds of the revenue in the state’s general fund comes from personal income tax, and in 2016, the state’s top 1 percent of tax filers paid 45.8 percent of it, according to data from the Franchise Tax Board.
Socialists would have you believe that wealth is created by the “working class,” while “the rich” are merely parasites and exploiters.
The save-the-rich bills in California tell a different story. It turns out that a lot of people make money by creating something of value that didn’t exist before. If they leave, they will create something of value someplace else.
That’s the secret that socialists have always known.
And now, so do you.
Susan Shelley is an editorial writer for the Southern California News Group. Susan@SusanShelley.com. Twitter: @Susan_Shelley
