California Democrats devise plan to hike taxes

By structuring them as fees, they would skirt GOP opponents and raise $9.3 billion. A court fight looms.

Reporting from Sacramento -- California's Democratic leaders were planning a vote today on a brazen proposal to raise gas, sales and income taxes through a series of legal maneuvers that would bypass the state's Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote to increase taxes.

The Democratic gambit, announced Wednesday, would raise $9.3 billion to ease the state's fiscal crisis by increasing sales taxes by three-fourths of a cent and gas taxes by 13 cents a gallon, starting in February. The plan would add a 'surcharge' of 2.5% to everyone's 2009 state income tax bill.

It would also require businesses to withhold taxes on payments above $600 made to independent contractors. Their package would total $18 billion and nearly halve the state's budget shortfall, projected to reach $41.8 billion in the next 18 months. [snip]

Republican legislators and antitax groups promised legal challenges to derail the Democrats' plan.

"Raising taxes on people and playing funny math and calling it fees is not governing," said Assembly GOP leader Michael Villines of Clovis. "That's trickery, is what that is."

The Democrats intend to do two things: eliminate some existing taxes, including those on gasoline, and substitute 'fee' increases that would include a 9.9% 'levy' on oil extraction and the income tax 'surcharge'. The Democrats will then reimpose the gas 'fees' at higher levels [but at 39 cents a gallon, hence the '13 cent' increase referred to]; fees can be raised with simple majority votes. The net effect would be billions of dollars in new revenue for the state.

Similar proposals have been considered in past budget crises but never acted on out of concern that they would unravel in court.

"If they proceed with this proposal to raise taxes with a simple majority vote, they will be sued and they will lose,"

[it's illegal, they know it, and they're going to do it anyway so they get the money while it's tied up in the courts. Still think this is a government representitive of the people or based on the rule of law?

If so, you need tell them ... >

CA Governor: Phone: 916-445-2841 mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov and http://gov.ca.gov/interact
CA State Legislature (Asy./Senate) = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

and pass on...]