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Is self defense a "Sin",CA says so...
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
'Sin taxes' amount to 'bake sale' for budget
From bullets to Bordeaux, plans aim to get voters to tax others' proclivities.
June 14, 2002
By HANH KIM QUACH
The Orange County Register
SACRAMENTO - That glass of merlot would cost you an extra nickel. Plinking with a .22 would be about 50 cents more per magazine than it is today. Smokers? You might want to budget another 65 cents per pack.
There's been a proliferation of such nickel-and-dime tax proposals this spring as lawmakers wrestle with a state budget that's running about $23.6 billion, or 31 percent, short of the revenue needed to pay for everything it did last year.
From shooting handguns to shooting tequila shots, taxing discretionary activities many California residents indulge in would be the source of at least $600 million in new revenue if all of the proposals passed - something not likely to happen.
That would still amount to only about 3 percent of what the state needs, but it would pay for a number of programs that otherwise would die, be cut back or never get off the ground. Those include trauma centers, domestic violence shelters and health care for the poor.
"We're providing for the state's basic services by using the equivalent of a bake sale,'' Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, said of the jumble of proposed tariffs, or "sin taxes," as some call them.
Perata is the author of one: a bill that would place before voters in November a proposed constitutional amendment to levy a 5-cent tax on every bullet sold in California. If passed, the tax would raise at least $21 million a year to pay for trauma care. That money is nearly equal to the amount Gov. Gray Davis cut from the trauma-care budget.
Some of the proposals are being met with disdain by colleagues and are languishing in the Legislature although lawmakers are trying to resuscitate them through legislation or the state budget process, which is culminating this month.
The proposals raise the ire of Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine.
"The reason you're seeing this is they think it's easier to get the public to pass something that taxes somebody else,'' said Campbell, who said the state would be headed down a slippery slope if it approved such taxes. "I don't smoke and I don't drink soda, but all of us consume something that someone else thinks is a sin. Eventually, they'll come to something that everybody does."
Campbell sits on the Legislature's budget committee attempting to pare the budget. He said taxes paid for a specific purpose sometimes end up being used for other things.
So-called "sin taxes'' aren't a new idea. In 1991, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Democratic Legislature signed off on a number of them, including a tax on magazines and one on junk food that raised up to 8.5 cents for every dollar spent on specific snacks.
The magazine tax was partially repealed, and voters overturned the snack-food tax the next year.
The difference 10 years ago was that the taxes on magazines or candy bars went to pay for parks and roads.
This time around, lawmakers have drawn a connection between the surcharge and the program that it would fund - a distinction they believe could make forking out the additional cash more palatable for some Californians in the same way they voted to raise tobacco taxes in 1998.
"People want accountable taxes, so it does help if people say, 'This tax is going for that purpose,''' said Lenny Gold berg of the California Tax Reform Association. "It really depends on the issue. People tend to support sin taxes. ... They feel they have more control. If you don't want to pay that tax, don't do the activity.''
Perata says he'll have a tough fight in the Legislature with his bullet tax. But if put on the statewide ballot, he thinks voters will draw on the same logic used four years ago when they passed the state's tobacco tax, which goes to pay for health care.
"The nexus between a gunshot wound and emergency trauma care is clear,'' Perata said.
Trauma centers are severely underfunded, and gunshot victims account for nearly 60 percent of their costs, according to the California Medical Association.
Isabel Becerra, who oversees health policy for Orange County's 29 community clinics, said a bullet tax would be helpful because real trauma centers would be able to shoulder a bigger load, taking the pressure off clinics that are not designed to handle emergencies. Last year, 10 percent of patients - 13,200 - came to her clinics for emergencies.
"We are already bombarded,'' she said.
Evan Carolyn, owner of Evan's Gunsmithing Shooters World in Orange, said the bullet tax is misplaced.
"I'm definitely for this tax if they're going to use the tax for a public benefit,'' Carolyn said. "It's not a benefit to me if criminals are going out and committing those acts (and) receive the (benefit) of it.''
Taxes on the table
Here are some of the plans legislators proposed this year to levy a tax or fee to help raise money for programs that might otherwise not be funded as the state faces a $23.6 billion budget deficit. Most are in flux. To track them, go to: www.sen.ca.gov.
Bill
Target
What bill would do
Status
SB1520
Soda
Impose a 9-cent tax on every 2-liter bottle of soda to promote health and curb obesity. Bill morphed into a ban on soda at elementary and middle schools.
Tax portion dead. Rest of bill in Senate.
SB1794
Transportation
Levy a fee on drivers to pay for road projects. Motorists could be assessed based on mileage driving.
Dead this year. May be revived in 2003.
TBA
Alcohol
Impose a fee to pay for treating health problems related to alcohol. No specific amounts have been pinned down, although a nickel-a-drink figure has been discussed.
Dead for now; will be resurrected.
SB1994 AB2682
Crude oil
Refineries would pay 30 cents on every barrel, which would go to cleaning up polluted ground water, marine areas and air. Could add 1.1 cents to a gallon of gas.
In limbo as authors weigh support.
SB1890
Cigarettes
Add 65-cent tax per pack. Would fund tobacco-prevention programs, cancer and asthma research. For a pack-a-day smoker, that's an extra $237.25 a year.
Has become part of proposed state budget.
SCA12
Bullets
Allow voters to decide whether to levy a 5-cent-per-bullet tax to ease hospitals' costs of treating gun wounds; 500 rounds of .22 ammo would go from about $15 to $40.
In Senate.
SB1523
Computers,
televisions
Tax buyers of any device with a cathode ray tube up to $30 to help the state dispose of them. A new program would educate people about the hazards of disposing the tubes.
Passed Senate. In Assembly.
SB1618
Marriage licenses
Increase marriage license by $10 to provide steady income for domestic-violence shelters and offset the federal government's 25 percent cut of such funding this year and a 50 percent cut by the state. In Orange County, a marriage license would go up to $71.50.
Sailed through the Senate. In Assembly.
AB2721
Junk food
Require state to study imposing sales tax on certain snack foods to pay for dental and health programs for children without insurance coverage.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/sintaxes00614cci4.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
From bullets to Bordeaux, plans aim to get voters to tax others' proclivities.
June 14, 2002
By HANH KIM QUACH
The Orange County Register
SACRAMENTO - That glass of merlot would cost you an extra nickel. Plinking with a .22 would be about 50 cents more per magazine than it is today. Smokers? You might want to budget another 65 cents per pack.
There's been a proliferation of such nickel-and-dime tax proposals this spring as lawmakers wrestle with a state budget that's running about $23.6 billion, or 31 percent, short of the revenue needed to pay for everything it did last year.
From shooting handguns to shooting tequila shots, taxing discretionary activities many California residents indulge in would be the source of at least $600 million in new revenue if all of the proposals passed - something not likely to happen.
That would still amount to only about 3 percent of what the state needs, but it would pay for a number of programs that otherwise would die, be cut back or never get off the ground. Those include trauma centers, domestic violence shelters and health care for the poor.
"We're providing for the state's basic services by using the equivalent of a bake sale,'' Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, said of the jumble of proposed tariffs, or "sin taxes," as some call them.
Perata is the author of one: a bill that would place before voters in November a proposed constitutional amendment to levy a 5-cent tax on every bullet sold in California. If passed, the tax would raise at least $21 million a year to pay for trauma care. That money is nearly equal to the amount Gov. Gray Davis cut from the trauma-care budget.
Some of the proposals are being met with disdain by colleagues and are languishing in the Legislature although lawmakers are trying to resuscitate them through legislation or the state budget process, which is culminating this month.
The proposals raise the ire of Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine.
"The reason you're seeing this is they think it's easier to get the public to pass something that taxes somebody else,'' said Campbell, who said the state would be headed down a slippery slope if it approved such taxes. "I don't smoke and I don't drink soda, but all of us consume something that someone else thinks is a sin. Eventually, they'll come to something that everybody does."
Campbell sits on the Legislature's budget committee attempting to pare the budget. He said taxes paid for a specific purpose sometimes end up being used for other things.
So-called "sin taxes'' aren't a new idea. In 1991, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Democratic Legislature signed off on a number of them, including a tax on magazines and one on junk food that raised up to 8.5 cents for every dollar spent on specific snacks.
The magazine tax was partially repealed, and voters overturned the snack-food tax the next year.
The difference 10 years ago was that the taxes on magazines or candy bars went to pay for parks and roads.
This time around, lawmakers have drawn a connection between the surcharge and the program that it would fund - a distinction they believe could make forking out the additional cash more palatable for some Californians in the same way they voted to raise tobacco taxes in 1998.
"People want accountable taxes, so it does help if people say, 'This tax is going for that purpose,''' said Lenny Gold berg of the California Tax Reform Association. "It really depends on the issue. People tend to support sin taxes. ... They feel they have more control. If you don't want to pay that tax, don't do the activity.''
Perata says he'll have a tough fight in the Legislature with his bullet tax. But if put on the statewide ballot, he thinks voters will draw on the same logic used four years ago when they passed the state's tobacco tax, which goes to pay for health care.
"The nexus between a gunshot wound and emergency trauma care is clear,'' Perata said.
Trauma centers are severely underfunded, and gunshot victims account for nearly 60 percent of their costs, according to the California Medical Association.
Isabel Becerra, who oversees health policy for Orange County's 29 community clinics, said a bullet tax would be helpful because real trauma centers would be able to shoulder a bigger load, taking the pressure off clinics that are not designed to handle emergencies. Last year, 10 percent of patients - 13,200 - came to her clinics for emergencies.
"We are already bombarded,'' she said.
Evan Carolyn, owner of Evan's Gunsmithing Shooters World in Orange, said the bullet tax is misplaced.
"I'm definitely for this tax if they're going to use the tax for a public benefit,'' Carolyn said. "It's not a benefit to me if criminals are going out and committing those acts (and) receive the (benefit) of it.''
Taxes on the table
Here are some of the plans legislators proposed this year to levy a tax or fee to help raise money for programs that might otherwise not be funded as the state faces a $23.6 billion budget deficit. Most are in flux. To track them, go to: www.sen.ca.gov.
Bill
Target
What bill would do
Status
SB1520
Soda
Impose a 9-cent tax on every 2-liter bottle of soda to promote health and curb obesity. Bill morphed into a ban on soda at elementary and middle schools.
Tax portion dead. Rest of bill in Senate.
SB1794
Transportation
Levy a fee on drivers to pay for road projects. Motorists could be assessed based on mileage driving.
Dead this year. May be revived in 2003.
TBA
Alcohol
Impose a fee to pay for treating health problems related to alcohol. No specific amounts have been pinned down, although a nickel-a-drink figure has been discussed.
Dead for now; will be resurrected.
SB1994 AB2682
Crude oil
Refineries would pay 30 cents on every barrel, which would go to cleaning up polluted ground water, marine areas and air. Could add 1.1 cents to a gallon of gas.
In limbo as authors weigh support.
SB1890
Cigarettes
Add 65-cent tax per pack. Would fund tobacco-prevention programs, cancer and asthma research. For a pack-a-day smoker, that's an extra $237.25 a year.
Has become part of proposed state budget.
SCA12
Bullets
Allow voters to decide whether to levy a 5-cent-per-bullet tax to ease hospitals' costs of treating gun wounds; 500 rounds of .22 ammo would go from about $15 to $40.
In Senate.
SB1523
Computers,
televisions
Tax buyers of any device with a cathode ray tube up to $30 to help the state dispose of them. A new program would educate people about the hazards of disposing the tubes.
Passed Senate. In Assembly.
SB1618
Marriage licenses
Increase marriage license by $10 to provide steady income for domestic-violence shelters and offset the federal government's 25 percent cut of such funding this year and a 50 percent cut by the state. In Orange County, a marriage license would go up to $71.50.
Sailed through the Senate. In Assembly.
AB2721
Junk food
Require state to study imposing sales tax on certain snack foods to pay for dental and health programs for children without insurance coverage.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/sintaxes00614cci4.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Well, I've posted this before but I'm doin' it again:
My buddy's father is a Polish WW2 survivor. He's seen all the worst from both the Nazi's and the Russians. He always has a simple solution to a problem. Got a problem? Ask him. His solution to this one:
(in his thick Polish accent)
"You line dem against dee wall and shoot dem."
He's the king of one-liners.
C-
___________________________
Top Three Titles for Klinton's New talk Show
1. Press the Meat
2. The No Stain Zone
3. Crouching Intern, Hidden Cigar
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Just don't try to line anti-gun nut Don Repalta up against the wall for he will shoot back! It's OK for him to carry but us peons can't be trusted to ... we just might get mad & shoot a State Congressman!
These loudspeakers are booming on every street corner in America. The speakers are your television sets and your radios and your newspapers. The great government media machine. Yesterday morning three major news networks and four cable news networks were covering the abduction case in Utah under the guise of "new information". There was no new information. This hype was purposeful. This was an attempt at NOT covering 40 dead suicide bombing victims in Israel. It was a numbing injection to ease our minds and prevent us from facing reality. The loudspeakers are booming on your street corners. Silence them. I did 5 years ago when I turned of the television. Now I feel insulted whenever I am in the presence of one that is turned on. You would be surprised at how you will feel if you do this. Television will revolt you. You will see the truth if you turn it off for five years.
I'm in the mood for a Boston Tea Party. How 'bout we all dump our bullets in the San Francisco Bay?
Edited by - idsman75 on 06/19/2002 20:31:36