RLA Fights Taxes and Fees on Business and Our Employees

Every Spring, the Regional Legislative Alliance is up to their shirt sleeves in planning

for the Sacramento Lobbying trip and cross-eyed from the bill analysis and letter writing.

Our Sacramento trip is on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20 and 21 in conjunction with the California Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Business Legislative Summit. We expect to hear from our Senator and Assembly representatives in addition to some experts on water and the budget, among others.

The legislative subcommittee is still working to narrow the current bill list which shows over 90 bills of interest that fall within our issues policy.

There are several bills on our action list that deal specifically with increased taxes and fees on businesses in addition to great impact to our employees. Letters of opposition to the bills listed below are being sent to the various committees hearing the bills.

•  AB 1956 (Calderon) would require state tax officials to begin imposing sales taxes on music,

    movies and software purchases made online, such as on iTunes.

•  AB 2829 (Davis) would impose a new plastic bag tax on the plastic bags used by grocery

    stores and other retailers to package purchases.

•  AB 2388 (Feuer) would raise the car tax based on the weight of the vehicle and

    the amount of carbon dioxide emissions it emits.

•  AB 2638 (Coto) would impose a new sales tax on the sale of cars in California

    that get less than 15 miles per gallon.

•  AB 2372 (Coto) would impose a new 1% tax on Californians earning more than

    $1 million per year, raising the state’s highest income tax rate to 11.3 percent.

•  AB 2897 (Hancock) would impose a new 10 percent tax rate for individuals earning more

    than $136,115 every year ($272,230 for joint filers) and a new 11 percent tax rate for

    individuals earning more than $272,230 per year ($544,460 for joint filers).

If you would like more information on the above listed bills, please go to www.leginfo.ca.gov and click on Bill Information. Type in the bill number and click search. The full bill text, the bill status and history will be shown.