1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 APRIL 28, 2015 9 10 PUBLIC SPEAKER 11 WILLIAM CONNELL 12 13 ---o0o--- 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 21 No. CSR 5214 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 3 4 Sen. George Runner (Ret.) Vice-Chairman 5 6 Fiona Ma, CPA Member 7 8 Diane L. Harkey Member 9 10 Yvette Stowers Appearing for Betty T. 11 Yee, State Controller (per Government Code 12 Section 7.9) 13 Joann Richmond 14 Chief, Board Proceedings Division 15 16 17 ---oOo--- 18 19 Speaker: William Connell 20 21 ---o0o--- 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 APRIL 28, 2015 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Thank you, Members. 6 Members, let us hear from -- we have a 7 witness here that has been very patient and ask 8 Mr. Connell to come forward and make his 9 presentation to the Board. 10 And, by the way, thank you for leading us 11 in the Pledge of Allegiance. 12 ---o0o--- 13 WILLIAM CONNELL 14 ---o0o--- 15 MR. CONNELL: You're more than welcome. 16 William Connell of Santa Barbara County. 17 It's a pleasure to address all of you here today. 18 I come here on a couple issues. One, I'd 19 like thank Mr. Runner's office for taking the time 20 with me yesterday afternoon. It was informative and 21 helps me to direct my comments to the rest of the 22 Board. 23 Specifically, Assembly Bill 919 of last 24 session, now the implication's to get the sales tax 25 money returned to some veterans. Your special 26 notices are quite clear. 27 However, in my travels -- I've just been to 28 Reno -- I mean not Reno, that's next week -- but 3 1 I've just been to Fresno with the Statewide Veterans 2 -- Vietnam Veterans. It seems that they haven't 3 received any notices at all regarding this. And 4 that was part of the -- as I understood -- group of 5 supporters that were going to receive notice. 6 Also the American Legion hasn't received 7 it, as well as a handful of others -- which Mr. Gau 8 and I will go over sometime this afternoon, I 9 believe, or tomorrow. 10 At one point there was a discussion 11 regarding how narrow this Assembly bill had been and 12 how we got it through. And that's fine. 13 There is three things that should be -- or 14 I would expect someone to help me with as far as the 15 sunset date on the -- and two other small items that 16 might help the veteran and his family, with or 17 without employees -- not just notification for the 18 return of the monies, but this looking forward, 19 trying to get this to affect as many veteran 20 families as we could. 21 It's supposed to be cast for -- to help the 22 22 percent that aren't employed. That's a bad 23 number still. It's gone up a little bit. 24 I just want to let you know I'm still 25 working on this. I believe that you'll hear a 26 little bit more about this and what a good thing you 27 have done as a step besides the two Senate bills, 28 809 and 805, and this Assembly bill to get some 4 1 money returned to the veteran. 2 The number of veterans that have been 3 claiming it is very small at this time. And I think 4 one of the reasons might be is that besides the nice 5 notification, you made up a cover letter from the 6 State Board to the officers of the different 7 veterans groups. 8 "Please bring this up at your 9 next meeting. Agendize it and make 10 sure that your full complement of 11 members know of this." 12 You know, sometimes you could look at and 13 it does say "Special Notice," but some people get a 14 little nervous when they get something from the 15 State Board of Equalization. 16 And other people would look at it, say, a 17 secretary who's 70 years old from the American 18 Legion, "Tax repayment, no, that's not our club," 19 and would discard it. 20 So, that's what I mean as far as a cover 21 letter would go to -- "Hey, listen, there's some 22 money out there -- not a lot of money, not to a lot 23 of people," but to just -- the notification could be 24 improved just a little bit. 25 Once again, thank you very much for your 26 time. I know how busy you are. And a lot of people 27 don't thank you for the work that you do. I 28 specifically will. 5 1 I also asked Todd Gilman for an application 2 for employment for the State Board of Equalization. 3 Just so you guys know, I've been doing an awful lot 4 of leg work here. And it might be an advantage to 5 you, you never know, as I have -- 6 MS. MA: You have experience. 7 MR. CONNELL: -- I have some unique 8 qualities that maybe I could help you guys. 9 I bet you I could find out everybody who's 10 illegally selling cigarettes in the State. 11 Thank you very much. And everybody have a 12 good Cinco de Mayo coming up. 13 And one last comment -- I believe 14 Mayweather takes out Pacquiao out in the eighth 15 round. 16 MR. HORTON: Mr. Connell, before you go 17 with or without employees, are you of the impression 18 that the legislation needs clarification in that 19 regard? 20 MR. CONNELL: At that point, maybe -- see, 21 the thing is, if you're having physically -- it's 22 clearly in the Brooks case, where it said that this 23 was intended for the veteran only and that's what it 24 said, "the veteran only." 25 That veteran only could use the help of his 26 wife or siblings to keep their, you know, or a 27 limited amount of an employee, one or two, somebody 28 help me -- boy, I would love somebody to help me 6 1 clean out my chili pots in the morning. 2 But we're not talking large, big companies. 3 We're talking the small, you know, sole 4 proprietorships. So, it would -- it would behoove 5 you to just take a look at that. 6 And I think a small adjustment there, if 7 you'd like to have Mr. Fitz do some figuring on 8 what's what. But I don't think it would make one 9 matter one way or the other. 10 A veteran vendor is a veteran vendor. I 11 know one or two guys who sell books that they have a 12 couple of their friends come as the -- as the flea 13 market is setting up, they're helping the guy get 14 the books out of the -- out of the back of the car 15 and putting them on the table and all for him. 16 So, a little assistance is always nice. 17 And maybe this could be some way worked into the 18 next piece of legislation, if I have -- if I have to 19 go through it. 20 But I understand that you guys all get it 21 at this point -- that the veteran needs as much help 22 as they can to reintroduce them in society. 23 Thank you so much for all your work. I 24 appreciate the time. 25 MR. HORTON: Thank you, as well. 26 ---o0o--- 27 28 7 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE. 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization certify 9 that on APRIL 28, 2015 I recorded verbatim, in 10 shorthand, to the best of my ability, the 11 proceedings in the above-entitled hearing; that I 12 transcribed the shorthand writing into typewriting; 13 and that the preceding pages 1 through 7 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: JUNE 2, 2015 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JULI PRICE JACKSON 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 8