OPINION: Don’t raise taxes on real estate paperwork
“The best way to promote affordable housing is to reduce regulations on homebuilders, spurring competition and driving down prices for everyone through free enterprise. Unfortunately, the tax hike in Senate Bill 391 would do the opposite.”
Michelle Steel: Public-records fee hits poor hardest
$10 charge to search records not good for litigants or the public. Transparency is a bulwark of liberty. The right of the people to search court records is fundamental to a free society.
Michelle Steel: State gas tax law a complicated mess
I voted against this adjustment because it is wrong for the Legislature to force the BOE to raise gas tax rates on California drivers by more than half a billion dollars based on a guessing game.
Michelle Steel: Remember where taxes come from
Governments that pull more from private economy do so at own peril.
Commentary: The threat to Proposition 13
As Sacramento's new supermajority gears up to tear down California's "third rail of
politics," it is vital to explain what makes Proposition 13 so important, and why plans to
destroy it could hurt Californians for years to come.
Michelle Steel: Prop. 39 will fund corporate welfare
Sold as a painless proposal to close a "corporate tax loophole" and "bring dollars and jobs back to California," Proposition 39 – which passed Nov. 6 with 60
percent support – will do nothing of the sort.
Commentary: Timber tax will drive up costs for all of us
This new tax, if passed, will deal a blow to our state's struggling housing industry and make an untold number of wood products – anything from furniture to tools with wooden handles – more expensive.
Michelle Steel: State gives food-truck owners indigestion.
Operators face bewildering sales-tax system, punitive bureaucracy.
Michelle Steel: Beware costly new tax on wood
This new tax will increase confusion and even anger from taxpayers who will not
know what is or is not included as a "wood product" for tax purposes.
Commentary: Let's drink to this legal victory
The legal battle isn't over, but this is an important step in stemming the tide of regulatory
overreach that hurts businesses across this state and makes California an increasingly
difficult state in which to live.
Steel & Correa: Give Californians a single tax agency
It is time to consolidate California's tax agencies to reduce waste, increase transparency and improve
service for California taxpayers.
New technology a winner for state and taxpayers
Through consolidation of functions and the use of newly available technology, we can continue to increase efficiencies and decrease costs for taxpayers.
Michelle Steel: Don't pay a tax you may not owe
According to the Board of Equalization, 99.5 percent of Californians paid no "use
tax" in 2010, despite a concerted effort by the agency and the Legislature to
increase compliance.
Californians Need Greater Freedom to Create and Save Jobs
Happy cows might come from California, but happy people live somewhere else.
From 2005 to 2009, roughly 870,000 Californians have left this state for greener pastures.
Brown's Plan to Hike Taxes Will Hurt The Poor More Than The Rich
Higher taxes disproportionately hurt those with the lowest incomes, yet Gov. Brown is campaigning to raise those taxes again.
The Unseen Cigarette-Tax Crime Wave
Cigarette taxes raise revenue, and they reduce smoking. But they also create an increased incentive for smokers, and for criminals, to evade the taxes and break the law.
Lessons from Liberalism's Laboratory
Today Californians are being strangled by the ever-growing hands of their government.
State Shouldn't Be Loan-Sharking
With all the talk the past couple of years about predatory lending, you would expect California government to have cleaned its own house.
Aiding Arizona while denouncing it
While our government continues to pursue job-killing taxes and regulations, the list of companies moving to Arizona grows.
Michelle Park Steel: No time for new, untested tax
A proposal by governor's tax-reform panel would not solve state's problems
California Focus: California Chases Its Own Tail on Taxes
State agencies waste time, money paying taxes to other arms of government.
Schwarzenegger's Budget Gamble
The governor's plan to borrow against future lottery earnings relies on Californians acting recklessly with their money.
Sales Tax on Services Would Hurt the Desert
A proposed tax increase on services might leave tourists without the financial means to afford everything the valley has to offer.
