There are 77,000 small businesses like Keiller’s driving the economy in San Diego County. But San Diego needs businesses like mine to thrive.”

“Banks don’t like lending to small businesses like mine because they can make more money investing in Wall Street. “Since I opened my shop in North Park three years ago, we’ve transformed the street corner we started on from a place for drug deals to a hub of new jobs and profits that stay local,” say Brad Keiller, owner of Nomad Donuts. In the face of mainstream banks reducing small business lending and Republicans in Washington pushing to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act that fosters small business’ access to capital, these local business leaders will speak up for the fair practices they need to promote San Diego’s economic growth. On May 19, small business owners will bring their stories to the table for a candid discussion with federal bank regulators on how small business lending practices must improve for the sake of San Diego’s economy. _ San Diego Small Businesses to Voice Concerns to Federal Bank Regulators Local businesses to call for fair lending practices that create economic opportunity Even, he argues, as it applies to the income tax: “You just purchased the right to live and work in California for only 13 percent of your income - congratulations!” “If you take that logic and apply it liberally, you could probably apply it to any tax.” Arnold Schwarzenegger and is the founding partner at Capitol Matrix Consulting. “All the Legislature has to do is say ‘we’re not taxing the purchase of the commodity, we’re just selling you the right to purchase the commodity,’” says Mike Genest, who directed the Department of Finance under Gov. Seemingly anticipating that broad interpretation, the court’s majority opinion insisted there was an obvious distinction between a payment made for a thing of value (in this case, an allowance for emitting greenhouse gases) and a sales tax, which one pays “but receives nothing of particular value for the tax.”īut some conservatives find that distinction too blurry for comfort. And, all of these transaction taxes provide something of value to the payer.”

“Anyone can choose whether to drive their own car and buy gas for it or not. “Under (the court’s) analysis, any transaction-based tax, such as the sales tax or the gasoline tax, is voluntary instead of compulsory,” he says. (Since then, the auctions have generated $4.4 billion for the state.)īut what is a tax? In explaining its decision, the court offered a new, narrower definition of the word: “a tax has two hallmarks: (1) it is compulsory, and (2) it does not grant any special benefit to the payor.”Īccording to Tony Francois from the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents one of the plaintiffs in the case, that definition leaves out many of the levies that most Californians would be surprised to learn aren’t “taxes.”

The suit, filed by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, contended that when the Legislature created the cap-and-trade program in 2006, it introduced a new tax with only a simple majority vote-violating the two-thirds vote requirements of Prop. Voters in 1978 passed the most famous of these restrictions, property-tax-cutting Proposition 13, which also lifted the legislative threshold for new state and local tax hikes from a simple majority to a two-thirds “supermajority.” Such semantic distinctions matter in California because the state constitution puts tight restrictions on lawmakers’ ability to raise money from taxpayers. In its 2-to-1 ruling, California’s 3rd District Court of Appeal declared that the state’s cap-and-trade climate program is neither a tax nor a fee - the two categories into which state jurists have traditionally slotted all revenue raisers -but falls into a mysterious none of the above category. Those words - contained within a decision affirming the constitutionality of California’s policy of charging polluters - are causing a stir among some state budget experts, who wonder if the ruling could be used to could pry loose constitutional constraints that have long restricted lawmakers’ ability to increase taxes. Illustration by Donkey Hotey via Flickr Why Some Experts Say a Court Just Created a New Pathway to ‘Tax’ CaliforniansĬould a few words buried within a recent court ruling make it easier for the state to raise money from Californians?

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