1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 9 SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 10 11 12 13 ---oOo--- 14 PUBLIC COMMENT 15 JIM VOSSEN 16 ---oOo--- 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 REPORTED BY: Kathleen Skidgel 28 CSR NO. 9039 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 Chair 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 16 Division 17 ---oOo--- 18 Speaker: Jim Vossen Executive Director 19 Seaside-Sand City- Del Rey Oaks-Monterey 20 Chambers of Commerce 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Good morning, Members and 6 guests. Let us call the meeting of the Board of 7 Equalization together. 8 Our first order of business is the Pledge 9 of Allegiance, and we would ask that Mr. Vossen lead 10 us in the Pledge of Allegiance. 11 Welcome, sir. 12 MR. VOSSEN: Thank you. 13 (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) 14 MR. HORTON: Members, Mr. Vossen has asked 15 to make a public comment. We'll take that up first. 16 Mr. Vossen is the Executive Director with 17 the Seaside-Sand City-Del Rey-Monterey Chamber of 18 Commerce. 19 ---oOo--- 20 JIM VOSSEN 21 ---oOo--- 22 MR. VOSSEN: Thank you. 23 MR. HORTON: Welcome, sir. 24 MR. VOSSEN: I sit here? 25 MR. HORTON: Yes, please. 26 MR. VOSSEN: It's Del Rey Oaks, by the way, 27 but that's okay. 28 MR. HORTON: Okay, thank you. 3 1 MR. VOSSEN: Anyway. As the Executive 2 Director of the Chambers of Commerce, a -- one of 3 our -- attention came to one of our members who's a 4 local tailor. And I've been going to him for years. 5 And for years he'll -- because I'm short and stocky, 6 I always have to buy pants and then take it to him 7 to hem my legs up a bit. 8 So it's always been eight or nine dollars. 9 In the last four months, he's been charging me sales 10 tax. And I asked what brought that about, and he 11 said, "Well, I was audited by State Board of 12 Equalization." 13 And at the first time he didn't tell me, 14 but later he told me that they actually audited him 15 and collected from him $10,000 for the past three 16 years. 17 This guy is a small immigrant from Vietnam, 18 came here many, many years ago, very upstanding, you 19 know, citizen of the community, one-man business 20 operation. And when the State Board of Equalization 21 comes in, and says, "You owe $10,000," instead of 22 arguing, he paid. 23 And I think the problem is really the law 24 that was able to be enforced has to do with 25 supposedly "new" clothing. So if I buy a pair of 26 pants from Kohl's, or whatever, and I take that 27 straight to him, apparently those pants are still 28 new. 4 1 I -- I think that once I've taken 2 possession of them, they're not new anymore, just as 3 a car. I buy a car, once I take possession of that 4 car, it's not a new car anymore. And so -- so he -- 5 it's up to him to determine what articles of 6 clothing are new. 7 Now, one of the arguments that came from a 8 gentleman from the State Board of Equalization was 9 that he's increasing the value of that item. Well, 10 come on. I go and buy a pair of pants for $39 and I 11 have 'em hem 'em up to my size, I can't get another 12 $9 for those pants. It hasn't increased the value 13 to me. 14 And the -- the burden that's put onto him 15 that says he's got to be able to tell what's new and 16 what's used. And if I buy a pair of pants and put 17 'em on before I walk into his shop, are they used? 18 I get different answers from different people 19 I've -- I've talked to. 20 I think -- no offense -- and I'm 65 years 21 old -- I think this is one of the more greedier 22 things that the State of California does. They -- I 23 mean, again, the difference of the new and used 24 thing is kind of funny. And when I -- one of the 25 gentlemen I talked to with the State Board of 26 Equalization says, "Well, it depends on how you 27 determine 'new.'" 28 I believe that once I buy that item, 5 1 it's -- it's -- it's not new anymore. 2 And so I understand if you go to a big 3 place and you're getting your suit adjusted, it's 4 all in the price, then the whole thing, that has to 5 have sales tax on it. But for this labor-intensive, 6 for using just a little, tiny bit of thread, to 7 charge a sales tax on the whole $9 operation, I 8 think is just unfair and just out of the -- 9 I went to my local assemblyman, Mark Stone; 10 didn't know of it. And everybody I've talk to, they 11 say, "What? What? What?" 12 I -- I -- and I can understand and accept 13 that if my wife bought a skirt and it needed a 14 zipper, maybe the zipper cost them, I don't know, 15 three, four dollars; maybe he should sell it for six 16 or seven dollars, then sales tax should be applied 17 to that. But for a tailor, small gentleman to be 18 able to determine what's new and used, I -- I think 19 that's putting too much burden on him. 20 And hitting him with $10,000 -- I mean, if 21 that -- if I was the tailor in that shop, I would 22 have been screaming bloody murder. I would have 23 been up here and yelling. He's a nice guy, quiet 24 guy, doesn't want to disturb anything; and that's 25 the problem, is that we get a law like that somehow 26 into the books and we get somebody that they go out 27 and they hit these guys, and says, "Oh, yeah, we got 28 him, we got him, we got him." Well, you know, 6 1 enough is enough of that. And I think that has to 2 be straightened out. 3 Now, I don't know if it's something I 4 need -- I think I'll go over to see my legislators 5 at the State, I guess I need to go there. But I 6 think there's just something wrong with that. It 7 sends a wrong signal out. 8 And that's it. 9 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much -- 10 MR. VOSSEN: I thank you. I thank you very 11 much. 12 MR. HORTON: -- for your testimony. 13 ---oOo--- 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization certify 9 that on September 16, 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: September 30, 2015 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 8