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Posted on 01/22/2003 2:10:51 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Fees Would Return To 1998 Level
POSTED: 10:08 a.m. PST January 22, 2003 UPDATED: 10:21 a.m. PST January 22, 2003
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Backed by dozens of police and fire chiefs, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson introduced a bill Tuesday to raise vehicle license fees $115 for the average car and avoid a "public safety disaster" in local budget cuts.
"This is a life and death issue," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said as police chiefs, sheriffs, fire chiefs and other law enforcement leaders packed the Capitol news conference room to support the bill.
"There are people who will die because we in law enforcement will not get there in time" if the budget cuts take place.
But Assemblyman John Campbell, the lead Republican on the Assembly Budget Committee, said lawmakers should focus on giving local government more stable revenue sources instead of raising vehicle fees.
He said Republicans would challenge the measure in court if Wesson and other Democrats try to get around GOP opposition by enacting the bill with simple majorities instead of the two-thirds votes usually required for tax hikes.
"Tripling the car tax is simply going to hurt working families and will not solve the budget deficit," Campbell said.
Under Wesson's proposal, fee increases could start hitting motorists' pocketbooks in the last half of this year. The fees could drop once the budget picture improves.
Because the bill just clarifies existing law, means that lawmakers can pass the bill with a simple majority instead of a two-thirds vote, aides to the speaker said. Despite talk of a legal challenge, Campbell does not dispute Wesson's interpretation of the law reducing the fee, which was approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities of the Assembly and Senate in 1998.
But Wesson's bill could also face opposition in the governor's office if it gets that far. Gov. Gray Davis has been cool to the idea of a fee increase, even though he proposed one last year. He hasn't said he would veto the Wesson bill, however.
Vehicle license fees would be restored to their 1998 level under the bill, which would increase the annual fee paid to register the average car from $55 to $170, according to Department of Motor Vehicle figures.
The approximately $4 billion raised by the measure would replace payments the state makes to local governments to make up for the loss of revenue caused by a series of cuts in the VLF that began in 1998.
Davis has proposed eliminating the so-called back-fill payments to local agencies to help erase a state budget deficit that his administration says totals $34.6 billion and the legislative analyst puts at $26.1 billion.
Spending cuts alone won't solve the state's budget problems, Wesson said, adding that the law that reduced the VLF envisioned it increasing again when the state couldn't afford to make the back-fill payments.
"Everybody agreed on that," Wesson said.
His bill would add teeth to the rollback language in current law by:
Designating the state finance director to determine the state cannot afford the back-fill payments. Current law is silent on who makes that decision.
Saying the state's ability to borrow funds could not be considered by the director in making his finding.
Law enforcement officials said the threat of losing the back-fill payments has already caused some local government administrators to order cutbacks in fire and police services.
Seventy percent of the back-fill now goes to public safety programs, Wesson said.
"The governor's proposal alone has set off a tidal wave of fear and concern," said Newport Beach Police Chief Bob McDonell.
But Steve Peace, Davis' new finance director, said the governor's budget proposals would take smaller percentage cuts out of local governments than state services.
He said local officials should cut other programs if they want to protect public safety.
Raising vehicle license fees now will not solve the state own budget problems and could jeopardize the state's credit ratings and undercut Davis' efforts to raise $8.3 billion sales, income and cigarette taxes, Peace added.
"If the reason for pursing the VLF at this time is (they think) this is the only tax increase they're going to get they might as well give us $8 billion in additional cuts," he said.
Based on that, the average car in California is worth only $8500. Good luck if you happen to own a new Lincoln Navigator. Your annual registration fee under this bill would go up to about $1000.
%$^#&&*ing Democrats!!! Arrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhh
Davis stops just short of saying he would veto fee increase
"I don't think it's wise for governors to rattle sabers," he told reporters. "I don't think I can make my intentions any clearer. I'm not enthusiastic about it. This bill will not solve the immediate task before us, in fact it will complicate the task before us."
The bill, by Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, is designed to raise about $4 billion for local government coffers by temporarily rolling back a series of cuts in the VLF that began in 1998.
Under the bill, the annual fee for an average car would jump $115, from $55 to $170, according to Department of Motor Vehicle figures.
The fee increase would replace funds the state gives to local governments to make up for revenue lost by the VLF cuts.
Davis wants to cut off those so-called back-fill payments to help erase a state budget deficit that his administration pegs at $34.6 billion and the legislative analyst says totals $26.1 billion.
The Democratic governor said he might be willing to consider a VLF increase later this year as part of the changes he wants to make in the tax system to protect the state against sharp fluctuations in revenue.
But he said lawmakers' first task is to focus on making budget cuts he has proposed.
Davis is also seeking $8.3 billion sales, income and cigarette taxes. Davis aides say that adopting a VLF increase now could jeopardize those other tax hikes.
On the Net: www.assembly.ca.gov
I have pissed off the voters of California so much that I can't really tell you that I am going to sock you all with as high a tax increase as I can get away with...
Ok, this qualifies the author of this piece as a complete political imbecile. Davis has engineered this whole thing so that it's somebody else responsible for the increase, not him. I recall the story of one new aide who was told that Davis always got to deliver the good news (like when the car tax decreased and Davis set it up so that it was done in the form of a refund check with which he got to enclose his personal message), and the departments delivered any bad news. No different this time. Davis is going to sit back and let others take the heat for tripling the car tax. He's not going to veto it, because then the resulting consequences in local budgets would be his fault. I'm sure he'll 'reluctantly' sign it. Or, probably even more likely, he'll let it be enacted by not signing OR vetoing it, which lets it become law completely untouched by Gray hands.
It should more accurately be called the politician's budget problems, since they created it.
I think the chief of P needs a "P-test"...
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