Sacramento is looking for $10+ BILLION.
This week is
the California Association of Realtors meeting in Sacramento. This is our
opportunity to talk with our local assembly members and senators to express our
support or concerns for government’s actions. Well This year we have a
bombshell of a bill that has been introduced.
Senate Bill 8
(SB 8) – lovely titled the Upward Mobility Act is a broad change in the tax
code to put a service tax (similar to a sales tax) on EVERY service in the
state except education and medical services.
If you use or
go to any of the following you will have to pay more in taxes.
·
Accountant
·
Lawyer
·
REALTOR
·
Mechanic
·
Dry cleaner
·
Hairdresser
·
House cleaner
·
…
You get the
picture. They expect to raise at least $10,000,000,000.00 that is a lot of
zeros. TEN BILLION dollars.
I do not know
how giving the government $10 Billion dollars is upwardly mobile.
The purpose
of this bill is not actually to get passed this session. It is a long process
in getting the idea of a service tax out there. Currently there are 3 states
that have this type of broad reaching service taxes Hawaii, New Mexico and
South Dakota. These three states generate on average more than 50% of the tax
revenue from sales/service taxes. Currently in California we generate about 30%
from sales tax.
I highly
recommend contacting Assembly Member Bill Dodd and Senator Lois Wolk to express
your view of the impact of a broad reaching service tax like this one.
Home Tip of the Week.
This week was the
60th anniversary of Earth Day! We will be having a fun celebration
in downtown Napa on Saturday (4/25 from 10-3p). Come and find out ways that we
can all help Mother Earth.
Last week we
talked about how brown is the new green. We were updated in Sacramento that our
Snowpack as of April 1, 2015 is about 3% of average. To put the dire situation
in perspective, the previous lowest amount of snow pack was last year April 1,
2014 at 25%.
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