California’s Business Properties Association penned an amazing argument in last Wednesday’s Sacramento Bee. I’ve heard some real whoppers but none as great as saying because the recession has been so harsh, businesses and consumers should pay higher taxes.

The Association wants Congress to pass a Streamlined Sales Tax law allowing state governments to act as a gang to collect online sales tax from out of state businesses. Never mind that California law already requires California consumers to pay a Use tax on such purchases.

It’s unfathomable that a supposedly pro-business association argues that California businesses should raise their prices to collect and pay taxes to other state governments. Are you kidding me?

The president of the California’s Business Properties Association thinks the problem is that California retailers are disadvantaged by out of state retailers who are not collecting sales tax. He asks, “…small businesses in our state are fighting an uphill battle. Why?” I have a simple answer. The sales tax is an outmoded tax that punishes one set of businesses that have the misfortune of producing physical goods. California’s high sales tax is not deserving of such fidelity from the business community.

I would ask why we are so addicted to California’s sky-high sales tax rate. The sales tax is of declining importance as a percentage of state revenues as more and more businesses produce digital products or offer services. Therefore, the best way to mitigate the “Amazon tax” inequity is to lower the sales tax rate so the difference between shipping to California and paying sales tax is more equal.

Requiring out-of-state businesses to collect California sales tax is hyped as a way to close the tax gap and make fairer the tax treatment of California retailers. Neither goal will be achieved with this scheme. The Board of Equalization already collects 96% of the overall sales and use tax due. The Board brings in around $44 billion in sales tax collections every year. Taxing Amazon is estimated to bring in $107 million a year more, or two-tenths of one percent.

On top of all this, for California to conform to a Streamlined Sales Tax, it would need to completely overhaul the sales tax system, change the way cities receive their share of sales tax by eliminating locally- enacted sales tax measures that support transportation and other projects. And, even though we are the seventh biggest economy in the world, in the Streamlined Sales Tax world California would have only one vote on the permanent governing board. This governing board will tell our Legislature what laws they must change or else California would be denied membership in the system. So the Business Properties Association proposes California give up its state sovereignty — for what?

The Business Properties Association’s prescription neither increase fairness for other taxpayers, nor brings in anywhere close to the revenue needed to close the deficit. Plus, it’s a wildly unpopular idea. Such a proposal is tinkering on the margins in a way that has no practical effect except to hammer the very businesses they claim to speak for.

Technology companies are having a huge and growing impact on making our lives better. Can the same be said of government? Government elites and their abettors should ponder that question and adopt a more humble attitude when confronted by the non-problem of consumers exercising choice.

Barbara Alby, of Sacramento, became Acting Board Member for the Second Equalization District in March, 2010. Prior to becoming Acting Member, she served as the Chief Deputy to Second District Board Member Bill Leonard. She also served in the State Assembly from 1993 to 1998, representing the Sacramento area.

Remember all the doom and gloom about rising seas and the end of the Earth because of global warming? In a wonderful kind of way it seems “so yesterday”. Back then, environmentalists captured the hearts of the mainstream press with their apocalyptic warning of man-made climate Armageddon. But then came a very swift unraveling.

First was the revelation that climate scientists were fudging data and lying to the media and the public. Shortly after, the global warming political death spiral went into hyper-drive. The public learned that the biggest liars of the “climategate” scandal were making a darn good living off the lies. Now, even the liberals in Congress are backing down.

Unfortunately for California, the climate mania is still a clear and present danger.

At the height of the panic in 2006, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) authored and passed AB 32, California’s “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006”. It granted extreme powers to a government agency, the California Air Resources Board, to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. If nothing is done, no aspect of our lives will be off limits to this agency.

Economists project increased costs to housing, transportation, natural gas, electricity, and food if AB 32 is allowed to be implemented. The California Chamber of Commerce says it will cost California small businesses $49,691 per year, significantly more than estimates by the Air Resources Board.

It is never a good time to embrace radical environmentalism, but doing so now would be particularly harsh. Many out of work Californians are having trouble buying food. The people desperately need a growing economy that produces jobs. Higher costs and Himalaya-levels of regulation are poison to the economy when it needs medicine — or at the very least, a break from big government follies.

Proposition 23 is a modest proposal to delay the implementation of AB 32. While modest, it is perhaps the most important measure on the November ballot.

Assemblyman Dan Logue is the author of Proposition 23. Logue’s the jobs guy who’s focused on balancing the budget by putting people back to work instead of raising taxes.

With millions of Californians unemployed, the state’s economy can’t sustain AB 32’s enormous costs and additional job losses.

Please join me in voting “yes” on Proposition 23.

State policy is to reduce tobacco use while profiting from it. Counting on revenues from high taxes is a fool’s errand.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/28/2919217/plummeting-cigarette-sales-cut.html

I am pleased that today, June 16, 2010 the Board of Equalization voted 4-to-1 to support my motion in favor of a 93-year-old taxpayer who had lost millions of dollars to a swindler.

The taxpayer had attempted to deduct the theft losses in 2003 when she found out from the FBI that there was no chance she would ever recover any of her money. The Franchise Tax Board said that she could have taken the deduction in 2002 or 2004 or 2005, but not in 2003 (which, predictably, was the only year the FTB had to get additional dollars from this woman.) Coincidentally– or maybe NOT coincidentally– the taxpayer had unrelated income in 2003 that she wanted to off-set with this deduction; she did not have income to off-set in the other years. Fortunately, the majority on the Board of Equalization agreed with me that the taxpayer had reasonable cause to take the deduction in 2003. We granted the taxpayers appeal.

This case reminded me of the fact that victims of investment fraud often have difficulty proving exactly when the theft occurred. In most cases, the victims have suspicions that they are being cheated, then they begin investigating and they find out more and more information confirming their worst fears. Sometimes, the investigations take months or even years. If the taxpayers file lawsuits against the swindlers, as this one did, it normally takes several years for them to be resolved in the courts. Then, all too often, they find that the swindler is broke and cannot pay back what they stole from their victim.

The next injury is when the tax man demands that you pay taxes on the theft “because you should have known” the moment you were robbed. That works if you are held up at gunpoint, but is ridiculous if your partner, manager or broker steals from you in the dark. It can be very difficult to say exactly when the taxpayer knew with “reasonable certainty” that the stolen money was gone and could not be recovered.

Given this kind of uncertainty, I think the Board of Equalization should give taxpayers the benefit of the doubt when deciding which year to allow the deduction. In the current case, I found it compelling that the taxpayer chose to deduct the loss in the year when the FBI said that the swindler had been investigated and he had no money to pay back his victims. I am heartened that three other Board Members agreed with me. In a small way, we helped an elderly woman find justice. This is an example of how an elected tax board can serve the taxpayers when the bureaucracy is doing everything in its power to deny justice.

Friends,
This is the last message from me this primary season. I bet this may be the best news you’ve heard in a long time from a candidate.

Please know that I appreciate all of your notes, emails, kind words and deeds extended to me throughout this primary.

Your support has made my campaign a great experience and many times a whole lot of fun.

I would ask two more things of you as we wrap up. First, if you have not yet cast your vote for me, please do so before 8 PM this evening.

Second, tonight’s winners will be jubilant. Others having fought the fight with great purpose will be defeated. Yet, all of us must continue together through an even bigger struggle in November. Let us meet that challenge united and dedicated to restoring our state to a “government of the people and by the people”.

Count me in for the long haul.

I remain,

Barbara Alby
Patriot

On Thursday evening, the Senate voted down Senate Bill 1113, a bill that would have allowed the Franchise Tax Board to sue taxpayers even after taxpayers won their tax appeals at the Board of Equalization. Board of Equalization Member Jerome Horton and I were the first to raise the alarm about this terrible bill, which was authored by Democrat Lois Wolk of Davis. Under this proposal, the Franchise Tax Board could have used litigation and endless appeals to force almost any taxpayer to surrender, no matter how strong their case and no matter what evidence had been produced.

The vote was 15 “ayes” to 20 ‘noes”, with 8 Democrats joining 12 Republicans in opposition. It takes 21 votes to pass a bill on the Senate floor. The Democrats have 25 members in the State Senate. The Republicans have 13 members, and there are two vacancies. The Democrats had more than enough votes to pass this without a single Republican vote. I am grateful 8 agreed with our position on this bill.

If this bill was law, a taxpayer who won their tax appeal at the Board of Equalization could be sued by the Franchise Tax Board in Superior Court — and the burden of proof would have been on the taxpayer. This would have taken the unjust “double jeopardy” for taxpayers and boosted it with steroids. The Franchise Tax Board is not subject to the frivolous appeal penalty, they do not pay the taxpayers’ attorneys’ fees when they lose, and they have no incentive not to appeal when they lose.

Under current law, the Board of Equalization creates the income tax rules statewide. Under SB 1113, judges in each of the 58 counties would have separate interpretations of the law and they would not have been required to abide by the published decisions of the Board of Equalization. That would be a sickening loss of rights for taxpayers.

Of course, no bad idea is ever truly dead in Sacramento. This bill could be passed on a maneuver called “reconsideration,” but that would mean six senators who abstained or voted “no” would have to switch sides. If you want to help convince them not to do that, please contact my office and I will send you their contact information.

Scott Raab, Chairman of the Sacramento Metropolitan Young Republicans, said, “Barbara’s unwavering conservative strength, her success keeping women and children safe from violent predators by authoring Megan’s Law, and her strong record protecting taxpayers at the Board of Equalization make her the supreme choice on the ballot for BoE2.”

Sacramento’s chapter of the California Young Republicans has members between the ages of 18 – 40, but all are welcome to join. They are young professionals concerned with politics and part of a vast network of like minded individuals.

The purpose of the SMYR is to give young people a voice and opportunity to get involved with the Republican Party and other conservative causes.  They organize events, speakers, networking, volunteer opportunities, and an opportunity for direct access to those that represent them on the local, state, and federal levels.

Barbara Alby for BoE Radio Ad

I am proud to be the wife of a Vietnam veteran. There are many things about his time in Vietnam that my husband will not share with me. One story he did share, and it still afflicts me. Dennis described a typically humid night filled with talk about escalation in the Northern Provinces. At 3 AM the following morning his C.Q. woke him with, “Alby, gotta go! Your C-130 is waiting on the flight line. ” As he settled in on the plane, Dennis was anxious to know what the night’s mission was. He would soon find out once they were in the air. The plane had just started moving toward the runway when the engines quieted and the cargo door opened as the Aircraft Commander yelled “Alby, change of plans, you’re diverted.” Dennis jumped off the plane just as another man took his place. That man died on the mission. He was killed by a mortar in an action called “Operation Oregon”.

Every Memorial Day I think about that soldier, who died because he did his duty, obeyed his orders, and took my husband’s place on an airplane in the middle of night. But as I watch our nation’s tragic turn from freedom I also mourn the values we once cherished. I was brought up to believe the legacy of America’s Founding Patriots would not perish from the earth. That promise and the fabric of our flag has been ripped and torn by wolves among us who are recasting America into a full socialist state.

In a blink of an eye we the taxpayers are now majority owners of General Motors. Banks with friends in Obama’s Treasury Department are rewarded with tax dollars for their own reckless greed. And without Constitutional authority, Federal Law now requires us to buy Obama-approved health insurance or face prosecution. Politicians who took an oath to defend the country mock and belittle those who want to secure our borders. Sadly, there is no Memorial Day for the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

It is a paradox that our brave soldiers go to foreign lands for the cause of freedom, too often dying so others can be free, while violations of our Constitution by government are allowed to stand. We have neglected to fight against corrupt politicians from both parties while our soldiers fight on foreign soil. But times are changing. The over-the-top takeovers of big government have awakened our nation. There is a new hunger for freedom in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. That hunger is the heart and soul of the Tea Party Patriots. Tea Party Americans are the source of my hope for a better future.

This is still the greatest nation in the history of the world. Regardless of what politicians do, America’s dilemmas lay squarely on the shoulders of We the People. Let’s get to work – and may another Revolution begin on June 8, 2010.