NEW LEGISLATIVE
EFFORT TO REPEAL ILLEGAL FIRE TAX
3/15/12
Today I stood with fellow
legislative Republicans and California’s rural residents
to announce Assembly Bill 1506 (R-Jeffries), a measure
to repeal the fire tax.
This $150 fire tax is illegal and unfair – plain and
simple. Many rural property owners already pay local
fire agencies for protection so it is clearly
double-taxation and it is being dumped on the backs of
rural Californians when the state has 11-percent
unemployment and families are struggling just to make
ends meet.
Assembly Bill 1506 by Assemblymember Kevin Jeffries
(R-Lake Elsinore) would reverse the Governor’s and
legislative Democrats’ decision to raise $84 million in
taxes by charging rural property owners a “fee” for fire
prevention services as part of the 2011-12 budget. These
communities are located in “State Responsibility Areas”
designated by the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection (CalFire), even though their property
taxes already contribute to the service contracts that
counties have with CalFire.
This tax will be imposed on the owners of more than
800,000 properties in the state. According to census and
CalFire data, my largely rural district includes nearly
20 percent or approximately 160,000 of the properties
whose owners will be subject to the fee.
Last summer, I launched a referendum to repeal the fire
tax. Working with the California Republican Party and
other key supporters to fight for taxpayer rights, the
effort gathered thousands and thousands of signatures,
but ultimately fell short of the number needed to
qualify the measure.
The fire tax attempts to sidestep Proposition 26, the
initiative passed last June that prevents the
Legislature from disguising taxes as “fees” and
circumventing constitutional requirements for passing
higher taxes.
I will stand with legislative Republicans and the Howard
Jarvis Taxpayers Association to fight this in every way
possible and encourage everyone who might get stuck
paying this phony fee to get in the arena and fight it
too. The answer to fire protection in California is not
illegal taxes, but budgets that invest in core
government services that protect every citizen in the
state – rural, urban and suburban.
Assembly Bill 1506 has been referred to the Assembly
Committee on Natural Resources. The hearing date is
pending.
To view
a video clip of Senator Gaines' remarks during today's
press conference, visit
www.senate.ca.gov/GAINES.
Senator Ted Gaines represents
the 1st Senate District, which includes all or parts of
Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc,
Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra
counties.
|