January 2003

ELECTRONIC EDITION

January 2003

Volume 7, No. 1

SUBJECT		ARTICLE
STATE BUDGET		Governor's Budget: Cuts, Tax Hikes and a Lot of Criticism. The Cal-Tax staff provides a comprehensive review of the governor’s 2003-04 state budget proposal, associated tax issues and what people think about them. Significant tax and fee hikes exceed $9 billion, and could trigger $3.4 billion more.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING		Tax $$$: Fraud and Waste. Cal-Tax staff compiles reports of abused tax dollars. The continuing report is updated with the Los Angeles Times’ report of about $2.5 billion in annual fraud that plagues the Medi-Cal program.
SALES TAX		Notion of Expanding the State Sales Tax Does a Disservice to Us All. David R. Doerr, Cal-Tax’s chief tax consultant, presents the case against taxing services, from how it would be an administrative nightmare to the regressive nature of such a “soak the poor” levy. Mr. Doerr expands on his commentary that was published in the Los Angeles Times.
STATE'S ECONOMY		Housing: Good for the Economy, Good for Californians. Harry C. Elliott III, president of the California Building Industry Association and head of a Folsom-based homebuilding company, cites new report that construction of new California homes provides nearly $40 billion a year in economic activity.
PROPERTY TAXATION		Property Taxes and Intangibles: Where We Are Now. Chris K. O’Neall, a lawyer specializing in handling property tax matters, provides a situation report on the troublesome treatment of intangibles in the property tax arena. Proper treatment by taxing authorities in recent years has been a bright spot, but more work remains to be done.
TAX ADMINISTRATION		Dean Andal: A Retrospective. Tax attorney Eric Miethke lists some of Andal’s contributions as a member of the State Board of Equalization. It is one thing to change a policy, but quite another to change the culture of a government tax agency, and that is perhaps the biggest legacy from Andal’s eight-year tenure at the board.

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