Aspen Group Resources (ASRPF)

[Amaunet]

STL, I will put this on the public side in case there are other Californians lurking. Do you know of the following bill?

Assembly Bill no. 1690


This bill would authorize any city, county, or city and county to form a fire protection finance agency for the purposes of supplementing fire protection services and financing needed capital improvements for its fire department or for any other public agency that provides fire protection services within its boundaries.

Existing law provides that, with the exception of a business license tax, a city, county, city and county, or any other local entity may not impose or collect a local income tax.

This bill would authorize any city, county, or city and county that forms a fire protection finance agency to levy a local general income tax, if that tax is approved by a majority of the voters voting on that tax.


People probably would feel threatened by the loss or diminished services of their fire department and vote for this bill’s passage. What is to stop the police from forming a police protection finance agency or for that matter any number of essential local services from also adding to a local general income tax? This seems a very bad precedent. It is unfortunate that the bad fiscal sense exhibited by our contemporary elected officials has driven us to this point. The implementation of a city or county general income tax is a bad idea that has the potential to grow a whole lot bigger. While I support the fire department they are going to have to find another way. Our incomes will, with the passage of 1690, be taxed at the federal, state and local levels.



http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_1651-1700/ab_1690_bill_20030221_introduced.pdf