Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

In the liberals’ attempt to grapple with the state budget deficit created by their own fiscal irresponsibility, they are calling for “widening” the tax base.
But don’t be fooled. This euphemism simply means they want to raise your taxes. However, the people most adversely affected will be the middle and working class people who liberals claim to champion.

For instance, in Board of Equalization Member Judy Chu’s recent proposal to “widen” the tax base, sales taxes would be added onto services such as repair shops, towing companies and car washes. Taxi and limousine drivers would also see their taxes increase. Other groups targeted by this onerous sales tax increase include mechanics who repair precision, mechanical, and household equipment; dry cleaners and nail salons.

These business people and their employees are hardly the top income earners of the state. The workers in these industries can least afford to be taxed, especially when they already face record high fuel prices, food costs, and foreclosures.

Would you pay 25 cents for a grocery bag?
State Assembly passes bill that would impose a 25-cent tax on grocery bags.
TAKE A POLL.

Taxes are the wrong prescription to cure the ills of the state budget. Why should hard working families be further squeezed when the state’s revenues have been increasing? The real solution is Sacramento needs to bring spending in line with revenues – just like families must do.

Let’s face it: there is no excuse for the massive deficits facing our state when revenues have increased about $31 billion over the past ten years.

That is a whopping 43 percent increase. By comparison, California’s population between 1999 and 2007 has only increased by around 13 percent. The growth in size of the budget has also outpaced inflation.

By all measures, state government has enough resources and is spending more dollars per resident than it has in the past. There is no reason for tax increases on our working families.

The service sales tax only affect workers from lower educational and income brackets. These proposed service taxes regressively tax the working class, and will be opposed by Senate Republicans.

Taxes, especially taxes on middle class and working class Californians are not a part of the solution to our state’s budget woes. The budget should be balanced by eliminating wasteful government programs, not the bank accounts of working Californians.