Government Finance and Operations 03/09/2012
Tax Reform
AB 1963 (Huber) – Request for Comment
As Introduced on February 23, 2012
AB 1963, by Assembly Member Alyson Huber, would reduce the state
sales and use tax rate to 4% and extend the tax to cover most
services, instead of only tangible property. It would also reduce
the personal income tax rate for most filer to 6.5% and increase
the standard deduction from $1,880 to $22,500 for single filers,
double that for joint and head of household filers.
As drafted, the sales and use tax would apply to all services
except:
- Necessary medical services.
- Services related to education.
- Auto repair.
- Tax preparation and filing.
- Licensed legal services.
- Services related to agriculture and livestock.
Redevelopment
AB 1644 (Carter) – Pending
As Introduced on February 13, 2012
AB 1644, by Assembly Member Wilmer Amina Carter, would, in its
current form, simply declare the intent of the Legislature to
grant redevelopment powers to communities impacted by military
base closures, including allowing successor agencies in those
areas to use their funds to carry out those activities.
CSAC will work with the author’s office to ensure that the actual
language of the bill, which will be amended in later, is
effective for the affected communities and fiscally
appropriate.
AB 1555 (Norby) – Request for Comment
As Amended on March 6, 2012
AB 1555, by Assembly Member Chris Norby, would disallow oversight
boards from requiring successor agencies to take any action
resulting in the forgiveness of any debt or advance owed by a
public body to the dissolved redevelopment agency. It would also
allow oversight boards to set aside any agreements forgiving debt
or advances owed by the dissolved redevelopment agency dating
back to the beginning of 2011.
AB 1555 is one of a number of bills dealing with the unwinding of
redevelopment agencies. CSAC is examining all of these bills to
determine their individual and collective impact on the
orderliness of the process and the fiscal effect on counties.
Vehicle License Fees
SB 1566 (Negrete McLeod) – Pending
As Introduced on February 24, 2012
SB 1566, by Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, would restore shares
of Vehicle License Fee revenue to newly incorporated cities and
inhabited annexations. These new cities and annexed areas lost
this revenue last year when the Legislature decided to use all of
VLF to pay for parts of 2011 Realignment. Specifically, this
money pays for public safety subventions such as the COPS and
Juvenile Justice programs, which go to both counties and
cities.
CSAC is working with the author’s office to ensure that this
restoration would not adversely affect the money promised to
counties as part of last year’s realignment. It might be possible
to pay for the restoration by reducing money allocated to DMV for
administering the fees.
