1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 3 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2015 9 10 PUBLIC COMMENT 11 WILLIAM CONNELL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 23 No. CSR 5214 24 25 26 27 28 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Sen. George Runner (Ret.) Vice-Chairman 6 7 Fiona Ma, CPA Member 8 9 Diane L. Harkey Member 10 11 Yvette Stowers Appearing for Betty T. 12 Yee, State Controller (per Government Code 13 Section 7.9) 14 Joann Richmond 15 Chief, Board Proceedings Division 16 17 18 ---oOo--- 19 Speaker: William Connell 20 21 ---o0o--- 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 2 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 3 FEBRUARY 25, 2015 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Ms. Richmond, our next matter, 6 please. 7 MS. RICHMOND: Our next matter is a public 8 comment from William Connell. 9 Please come forward. 10 MR. HORTON: Mr. Connell, please come 11 forward. You now have three minutes, Mr. Connell. 12 Oh, you have displays? We're going to drop 13 that to two minutes. 14 MR. CONNELL: Okay. 15 MR. HORTON: Okay, no displays, three 16 minutes. 17 ---o0o--- 18 WILLIAM CONNELL 19 ---o0o--- 20 MR. CONNELL: You only need to read the 21 front three, that's all you need to read. 22 William Connell, on a veterans' tax 23 exemption issue. 24 Thank you very much for hearing me today. 25 MR. HORTON: You're welcome. 26 At your convenience, we invite you to have 27 a seat. 28 MR. CONNELL: I'm going to stand as I've 3 1 been sitting in traffic for three and a half 2 hours. 3 MR. HORTON: Okay. 4 MR. CONNELL: It's been very bad. If 5 that's okay? 6 MR. HORTON: It's okay. Pull your mike up 7 a little bit higher. 8 MR. CONNELL: It's higher. 9 MR. HORTON: Make sure we capture your 10 testimony. 11 MR. CONNELL: The first I have is I want to 12 compliment your office, sir, Ms. Ma's office, who 13 worked with me very nicely, and Mr. Gau's office in 14 the notification of the monies going to be returned 15 to our veterans. 16 I brought in one of the California Veterans 17 magazines and circulars, along with your news 18 release. I hope that will be one of maybe three -- 19 that would be the initial one, two months down the 20 line a follow-up and then a last call. 21 It was a big problem with the amount of 22 veterans. And I was in certain committee meetings 23 over this last Assembly Bill 919. I was told I was 24 the only veteran. I was told nobody else -- and I 25 have here from 1998 all of the previous cases of the 26 veteran vendors that I'd like you guys to have. 27 These are my only copies. 28 Additionally, this Assembly Bill 919 passed 4 1 by a vote of 73 to 1, I believe, signed by the 2 Governor. That, coupled with Assembly Bill 805 -- 3 809, that I helped author, let -- this last one, 4 this Assembly Bill 1869, where some attorneys tried 5 to change the law to fit their interpretation. That 6 was one of the larger bills that I defeated. 7 This was Assembly Bill 893, that I also 8 defeated to change the law. They were going to add 9 the Civil Air Patrol and -- as a guise and then just 10 give us a license, a free license. These two were 11 nowhere to be found in Assembly Bill 919 and all of 12 the Committee reports making me out to be some sort 13 of a kook. 14 This is a resolution from the State Senate 15 acknowledging the earliest possible veterans' 16 exemption. 17 I want to thank you all for your help. 18 There is a couple of little things we have to tweak 19 on it -- the sunset date, the physically unable to 20 obtain a living by manual labor. We should look at 21 that because 22 percent of returning veterans are 22 unemployed. 23 Let's get them a little business, whether a 24 little period of time, whatever, and give them a 25 little tax relief. That would help them and their 26 families. 27 And the third one is about the families. 28 You have these returning veterans who can take 5 1 advantage of this new enactment, but he can't have 2 any help from his wife or can't have any help from 3 his son or a single employee. He's -- you have to 4 open that up a little bit and let -- let it breathe. 5 But these are some 1998 facts also that 6 were limited. And the Sales and Use Tax Director 7 letting everyone know that Mr. Connell should be put 8 in the four levels of appeals and he should be 9 denied everything. So, this has to be changed. 10 You guys did great from 2002 forward. The 11 vets are all taken care of. The handful of veterans 12 that aren't taken care of are from 2002 to 1991 on 13 my records. 14 You can do that by combining all of our 15 cases together, voiding the previous hearings, set 16 us, down take a look at it, return us our money -- 17 23 years, you still got all my cash, still got my 18 money. 19 I'm working at it. However I have to do, 20 whose ever door I have to knock on, including the 21 Governor. 22 I've been in Washington on this issue. I'm 23 having it introduced as veterans' tax exemption 24 statute nationwide. I've got great interest in 25 helping our veterans right now. 26 And all of you should be very proud that 27 you sponsored this last Assembly bill and you've 28 been great supporters. 6 1 And I would hope that when I see you in 2 Sacramento next, that we can work together. I'd 3 love to know when I'm going to get a rehearing. 4 Thank you very much. You guys are very 5 busy today. And, once again, I wouldn't want to 6 have your jobs. 7 Thank you. 8 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much, 9 Mr. Connell. 10 We again commend you for your work in the 11 legislature and getting this change and encourage 12 you to continue working with the legislature. 13 And you have my personal support in that 14 regard. I believe the support of the entire Board. 15 ---o0o--- 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7 1 . 2 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 3 4 State of California ) 5 ) ss 6 County of Sacramento ) 7 8 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for 9 the California State Board of Equalization certify 10 that on FEBRUARY 25, 2015 I recorded verbatim, in 11 shorthand, to the best of my ability, the 12 proceedings in the above-entitled hearing; that I 13 transcribed the shorthand writing into typewriting; 14 and that the preceding pages 1 through 7 constitute 15 a complete and accurate transcription of the 16 shorthand writing. 17 18 Dated: MARCH 5, 2015 19 20 21 ____________________________ 22 JULI PRICE JACKSON 23 Hearing Reporter 24 25 26 27 28 8