State Senator Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, who has ruffled the feathers of taxpayer groups with his proposal for a $10 billion sales tax on services, has introduced legislation to aid taxpayers in their battle with the state tax agency. Senate Bill 540 would extend and make permanent the Franchise Tax Board’s Taxpayer Advocate Relief Program, which has helped taxpayers obtain speedy tax relief since 2009.

Under current law, the Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate relief program is set to sunset on January 1, 2016. Hertzberg’s office says that would dissolve much-needed protections and benefits afforded to taxpayers.

Taxpayer Advocate offers free help to taxpayers

Back in 1988, the California Legislature enacted the “Katz-Harris Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Act,” which among other provisions, created the position of Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate. Since that time, state taxpayer advocates have provided free assistance to taxpayers and businesses struggling to comply with the state’s complicated tax code.

“We help taxpayers who have been unable to resolve their tax problems through normal channels,” the Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate at the Franchise Tax Board explains on its website. “Our goal is to protect your rights and ensure that your tax problems are handled promptly and fairly.”

Although the office has assisted taxpayers for more than two decades, for much of its history, the office has lacked the power to issue refunds or waive penalties — even when the tax agency was clearly in the wrong. That’s why in 2008, the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, under then-Assemblyman Charles Calderon, amended the state Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights Act to give the office the authority to waive penalties, fees, additional taxes or interest when there was an error by the Franchise Tax Board.

The bill was extremely limited in scope and only applied in cases in which there was either:

1. Erroneous action or inaction by the FTB in processing documents or payments;
2. Unreasonable FTB delays; or
3. Erroneous written advice that does not otherwise qualify for relief.

According to a 2012 legislative analysis, “The advocate could only provide relief if no part of the error or delay could be attributable to the taxpayer, and when relief is not otherwise available.”

Sunset date on taxpayer assistance

If there weren’t enough caveats and limitations to that original legislation, Assembly Bill 3078 also included an automatic sunset date on January 1, 2012, which was later extended another four years with subsequent legislation in 2011.

Rather than extend the sunset date again, Hertzberg believes it’s time to make the tax relief program permanent. His office points to multiple cases in which taxpayer advocates have helped deliver speedy tax relief to taxpayers. In one case, 50 taxpayers received $1.1 million in tax relief due to bad advice contained in tax form instructions. Other taxpayers have received thousands of dollars worth in forgiven interest because of cases involving erroneous actions by the Franchise Tax Board.

“This program allows the Taxpayer Advocate to abate a taxpayer’s penalties, interest, and fees that occur because of erroneous actions by the Franchise Tax Board’s staff,” said Ray Sotero, Hertzberg’s communications director. “This bill would make improvements to the current program by removing a burdensome application process for taxpayers, removing the dollar limitation on the abatement amount, and by clarifying that the Chief Counsel approves each request.”

One improvement proposed by Hertzberg is the elimination of the $7,500 cap on the amount of relief that may be granted. In lieu of a limit, the bill requires the chief counsel and executive officer to sign-off on claims of more than $500. Those claims, which would include an explanation of the agency’s mistake, would be public records retained by the tax agency for a year.

Senate Bill 8: Hertzberg’s plan for sales tax on services

Hertzberg’s proposal to provide tax assistance may come as a surprise to many taxpayer groups. As CalWatchdog.com has previously reported, the former Speaker of the Assembly has introduced Senate Bill 8, which would extend the state’s sales tax to services. The new tax on services would generate $10 billion in revenue by applying the sales tax to accountants, lawyers, hair stylists and yoga instructors.

“Taxing services is a bad idea for California,” Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, wrote in opposition to Hertzberg’s sales tax on services. “First, such a levy would have a depressing effect on California’s service economy. It is a simple fact of economics that when you tax something you get less of it.”

Hertzberg says the changing global economy requires a reevaluation of what’s considered subject to sales and use taxes. He believes California needs a permanent solution to raise revenue when Proposition 30, a temporary sales and income tax increase of $7 billion passed by voters in 2012, begins to expire next year.

Unlike the sales tax on services, Hertzberg’s legislation to permanently extend the taxpayer relief program is expected to sail through the Legislature.

For any taxpayers in need of assistance, the Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate has more information on its website, where you can also obtain a copy of “Your Rights as a Taxpayer.”

Never mind that I have an unlisted home phone number.

“This is an urgent call from  DowntownArena.org,” the message said. The caller claimed “Out-of-towners” are trying to stop the arena.

“The arena will provide $157 million annually, and create 4,000 jobs. This is an exciting time in Sacramento history,” the caller said. 

“This is Michael Ault, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership. We need your help,” the caller said. “Stop the dishonest petition collectors.”

“If you believe you’ve been deceived into signing one of these petitions, please call immediately.”

Never mind that I have an unlisted home phone number.

The organizers behind downtownarena.org, a group pressuring taxpayers for a multi-million dollar government subsidy to build the Kings a new stadium in downtown Sacramento, apparently illegally called more than 110,000 Sacramento households this weekend as part of a disinformation and intimidation campaign to dissuade residents from voting on the deal which will cost the people of Sacramento more than three-quarters of a billion dollars over the next four decades.

Well, I never… $908 million by taxpayers for an arena?

I’ve never seen anything like the tactics used by DowntownArena.org. Their desperation proves there is a huge amount of money in this deal… taxpayer money.

The city’s gross spending is exactly why the arena deal needs a vote of the people. The arena deal, led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, has suffered from a lack of public debate, dubious financial numbers from the city, along with a growing public subsidy, and last-minute legislation by Sen. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to let the stadium avoid a real environmental impact review.

The publicly funded arena is being supported and pushed by labor unions and local government groups:

• IBEW Local 340
• National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) of Sacramento
• Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange
• Associated General Contractors
• Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) of Sacramento
• Carmichael Dave & #HereWeBuy
• Greater Sacramento Urban League
• Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) of Northern California
• Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce
• Sacramento Downtown Partnership
• Ironworkers Local 118
• Sacramento Central Labor Council
• Northern California MCA
• Associated Plumbing & Mechanical Contractors (APMC) of Sacramento
• R Street Partnership
• Midtown Business Association
• Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce
• Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau

Anyone in Sacramento who received the robo-call and wants to file a complaint, can call the Public Utilities Commission at 1-800-649-7570, or online at https://appsssl.cpuc.ca.gov/cpucapplication/

By Katy Grimes

The radical feminists are on a roll. They continue to make gains in their attempt to make “man” and “men” officially unacceptable terms in government.

The latest weird politically correct idea to make it into legislation seeks to remove alleged “gender bias” from the language — at taxpayer expense. Using the word “man” is no longer allowed.

Washington state is now actively replacing “gender bias” words with new gender-neutral references, and requires the use of such words as “handwriting” instead of “penmanship,” “signal operator” for “signalman,”  “fisherman” with “fisher” and  “freshman” with “first-year-student.” There are no more “journeyman plumbers”; now they are “journey-level plumbers.”

I’m not sure what a “journey-level” is. This ridiculousness proves that gender-neutral language is ungrammatical, and not allowed in AP Style. How will I write?

Kinder, gentler, gender-neutral state

In February, I wrote “A kinder, gentler, gender-neutral state,” about the creepy push to take the word “man” out of law books, school books, and spoken language.

Washington state had already spent the last six years changing language in the law books of the state.

Word such as “dairymen,” “freshmen” and even “penmanship” were on the short list for neutering when I wrote my story in February. And now they have been neutered.

When I was in college, I worked at a grocery store as a “box boy,” also known as a “bag boy.” During my two-year stint, the offensive term was changed to “courtesy clerk.”

“Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ to augment the existing ‘he’ and ‘his,'” the Huffington Post reported recently.

Washington’s Legislature,  controlled by Democrats, recently passed the bill outlawing these manly words and ordered the state’s law books to be painstakingly edited to reflect the new man-free law.

According to the Huffington Post, Washington is the fourth state to eliminate gender “bias” from its official lexicon. Florida, North Carolina and Illinois preceded Washington.

Some think this is a proper use of lawmakers’ time, and taxpayer money because of their belief that we must eliminate gender “bias” from the language.  “Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ to augment the existing ‘he’ and ‘his,'” the Daily Mail UK reported.

But what about the words WoMAN, FeMALE, MANager, MAN, ReaSON, PerSON, GovernMENt? What will we do when we have to use these offensive words? I am guessing “HIStory” will no longer be allowed; “HERstory” will probably replace it.

Perhaps someone will author a bill to change the word “politician” to “dimwit.”

By Katy Grimes

Have you noticed the press releases from legislators at the state Capitol are all gender-neutral? Lawmakers and staff refer to each other as “Assembly members,” and not “Assemblywoman” or “Assemblyman.”

And even more ridiculously, the don’t refer to a Committee head as a “Chairwoman” or “Chairman;” they call each other “Chair.”

Washington state is taking this gender-neutral form of speaking to a new level. “In Washington state, dairymen, freshmen and even penmanship could soon be things of the past,” Fox News reported.

Attempts to fix language are misguided to the point of absurdity. Remember “huperson,” “woperson,” “personslaughter” and “personhole” covers?

Former Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin became the butt of jokes for her attempt to rename manhole covers, “personhole” covers.

New lingo

Washington state officials have spent the last six years changing language in the law books of the state, as the AP photo above shows. But gender-neutral language is ungrammatical, and not allowed in AP Style. 

“So while the state has already welcomed ‘firefighters,’ ‘clergy’ and ‘police officers’ into its lexicon, ‘ombuds’ (in place of ombudsman) and ‘security guards’ (previously ‘watchmen,’) appear to be next, along with ‘dairy farmers,’ ‘first-year students’ and ‘handwriting,’ Fox reported.

The feminists have finally won — they have eraced “men” even from the law books.

“But language matters. It’s how we signal a level of respect for each other,” Seattle Councilmember Sally Clark said.

What’s wrong with calling Clark a “Councilwoman?”

“Clark and former councilmember Jan Drago — the Seattle City Council has long eschewed the terms councilwoman or councilman — brought the issue to Sen. Jeannie Kohl-Welles in 2006 after they came across references to firemen and policemen in the mayor’s proposed budget, as well as in state law dealing with local-government pensions.”

“I don’t see the need to do gender neutrality,” Republican state Rep. Shelly Short said, adding that her constituents want her to focus on jobs and the economy. “We’re women and we’re men.”

Even more disturbing, is how much taxpayer money has been spent on this absurd project. Kyle Thiessen, the state’s code reviser, has been working on the project along with two attorneys since 2008. I wonder how many support staff are dedicated to this ridiculous project.

Exactly how will this help Washington’s economy, debt, standard of living, or job creation?

By Katy Grimes

The state of California is pushing welfare and food stamps very hard. They constantly advertise on the radio and television, and must have a huge public relations budget… paid for courtesy of taxpayers.

Here’s one ad for the “Women, infants and children” program:

Welcome to the WIC Show!
The show about WIC, for WIC and by WIC!

On our channel you’ll find five half-hour episodes made up of different segments that will interest everyone, especially parents of young children and pregnant women. 

The shows are designed to reinforce California’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) education programs, highlight WIC service while at the same time entertain WIC clients.

Once you are in these programs, you get hooked into other programs: county health care, housing, school, daycare. Eventually, the government runs everything in the lives of those on government assistance. It’s no wonder President barack Obama got reelected.

CalFresh

The WIC ad says, “the food program is not a welfare program,” but you have a state case worker.

We can’t even call welfare what it is.

Food-stamp benefits usage is at an all time high. 46 million Americans are on welfare and use food stamps. One-third of all welfare recipients are in California.

The name of the California welfare food stamp program was changed to “CalFresh,” to take the stigma out of using welfare benefits. Recipients are given a debit card so they look like every other shopper when purchasing their items.

In Los Angeles County, more than one million people are signed up for the food stamp and welfare benefits, ranging from $200 to $1,500 a month.

In 2011, the federal Department of Food and Agriculture went all out on a national media awareness program. Here is a schedule of media buys in just L.A. County.

This was done because in some areas, welfare agencies believed that communities were “under served.” In Sacramento County, the Board of Supervisors even got involved, allowing the Sacramento Hunger Coalition to drive a campaign to expand the number of recipients.

“The Sacramento Hunger Coalition was founded in 1989 and now resides as a project of the Sacramento Housing Alliance’s Coalition on Regional Equity (CORE)’s food justice work,” the website says.

What a clever way to expand government. But welfare has become a giant ponzi scheme.

Even more interesting, is the list of publications below from the Sacramento Hunger Coalition… the links go nowhere. But this was what the entire hunger in Sacramento campaign was based on.

Hunger Hits Home 2012: Understanding & Combating Hunger in Sacramento County

A Primer on the Restaurant Meals Program in California: Preventing Hunger Among the Elderly, Disabled & Homeless in the Golden State

Homeless Nutrition Education Toolkit: A Resource for Nutrition Educators and Emergency Food Providers

Hunger and Homelessness in Sacramento: 2010 Hunger & Food Insecurity Report

I finally found one of the reports on hunger in Sacramento – I hope no one got paid to produce this.

Other government advertising

I hear government paid radio ads for bullying, FEMA, flood insurance,  Homeland security disaster preparedness,  the CA Earthquake Authority insurance, and ads about housing discrimination, paid for by the federal Housing and Urban Development department.

What a scam, all paid for by taxpayers.

By Chris Reed

State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, is launching a push for a 2014 constitutional amendment that would more than triple the vehicle license fee, also known as the car tax. Here’s hoping it makes the ballot. I still have plenty of faith that voters won’t just go along with giving Sacramento billions with no truly binding strings attached.

Instead, it takes precisely focused blackmail like Prop. 30 to bully California voters into line. It may have been dishonorable to sell a tax-hike prop with a specific warning that schoolkids would suffer unless it passed, but it was effective.

Before 30’s approval, one has to go all the way back to 1990 to see state voters approve a tax hike that hit everyone. And as recently as June, voters rejected a specific tax hike on smokers, which is striking, given how often smokers are treated like pariahs.

So instead of being leery of Lieu’s looming larcenous lunge, let’s welcome it. A lopsided voter rejection of a tripling of the car tax would be a great reminder to Sacramento that taxpayers still don’t trust them.

Katy Grimes: UPDATE: Since I wrote about Gov. Jerry Brown’s awkward confrontational moment with a Los Angeles reporter last week, I expected to see the story all over the news. When a governor behaves badly in public, it’s usually news. But there has been a virtual news blackout on this story.

The original story was broadcast on a Friday evening, when all bad news about government is released. Government officials figure that the bad news will die over the weekend.

This is just too weird to let fade away. Brown’s aggressive and confrontational style with the reporter is bizarre. It is how a government official behaves when caught by the media who usually give him a pass. Brown is dumbfounded, then angry.

Here is the video. The story is below.

Gov. Jerry Brown reacted very badly last week when confronted by a CBS 2 Los Angeles reporter who discovered state employees using expensive rental trucks while on the clock.

CBS 2 Reporter David Goldstein asked Brown why he would not look at the video the news station had taken of Caltrans employees using dozens of $30,000 rental trucks for personal use.

Brown got close to Goldstein’s face, pointed his finger at him and accused Goldstein of withholding the tape. Then Brown grabbed Goldstein’s phone, and said, “this guy is like a thug.”

The CBS2 Los Angeles investigation found numerous Caltrans employees using rented trucks, paid by taxpayers, for personal use including shopping at Costco, Home Depot and for liquor store runs. And these same employees took the trucks home.

Goldstein confronted Brown and only asked why the governor would not look at the video. Brown turned on Goldstein. “Sir, you’ve concealed a tape,” Brown said. “Why won’t you show it to us?”

Then Brown reached around Goldstein and grabbed his cell phone from his hands.

It was really weird.

On CBS 13 in Sacramento, the story got even stranger. Channel 13 followed up the CBS 2 story with another brief segment showing Brown telling reporters after the confrontation, “I think jumping in your face at the funeral of Mervyn Dymally and only wanting to know about something that’s in his cellphone that he forces me to look at while he puts a camera in my face and a microphone, I don’t think that is the civility and the gentility that I expect from the old CBS network.”

CBS 2 VIDEO

CBS 13 video 

What is going on? Caltrans employees still ripping off taxpayers is bad enough.  But with the governor’s office and Caltrans refusing to address the CBS investigation is deplorable. Far too many state agencies refuse to return press phone calls and media inquiries, if it’s about an issue they don’t want to address.

And for Gov. Brown to try to turn the tables on the reporter was either a really bad PR strategy, or just bizarre behavior.