Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

And then there were two. Earlier tonight I watched part of the debate between Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a jerk, and I can't take him seriously. Haley, on the other hand is a smart gal, and offers some hope for bringing some level of sanity back to the Republican party. But she often dumbs things down to appeal to the simple-minded (mostly Trumpers), and that drives me nuts. Case on point: Haley promised that if elected she would eliminate the federal gasoline tax to reduce the tax burden on working class Americans. Moderator Dana Bash pointed out that the federal gas tax raises over $50 billion annually and is used build and maintain highways and bridges. She then asked Haley how she would pay for those things without it. Haley responded first by evading the question and talking about taxes in general. But eventually she got back around to the gas tax. She employed a classic Republican talking point saying the states collect the...

State senate candidate Rob Poythress has been running attack ads against incumbent Anna Caballero on local TV. In one ad Poythress criticizes Caballero's support for the 12 cents per gallon gasoline tax increase which took effect earlier this year. Poythress claims this tax increase is costing motorists $1,000 a year. Seriously? Let's do some math. $1,000 divided by 12 cents per gallon works out to 8,333 gallons of gas consumed per year. Divide that by 365 days and we discover that one would have to burn through almost 23 gallons of gas per day, every day, in order for the tax to add up to $1,000 annually. For a car that gets 30 miles per gallon on the open road, 23 gallons would take you all the way from Monterey to Eugene, Oregon, which for all practical purposes is a two-day drive. I could be charitable and say that Poythress is being misleading, but since this claim of his is so blatantly false it really falls into the “lying weasel” category.

The April 27th Carmel Pine Cone reports that the city of Pacific Grove wants to charge a $1.00 tax on every admission ticket sold at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The city's reasoning is that it needs the revenue (as all cities do these days), and that the aquarium has a presence in the city that affects PG's infrastructure and tidal zone. All well and good so far. However, only 20 percent of the aquarium building is actually in Pacific Grove, the rest is in Monterey. It is worth noting that actual ticket sales occur on the Monterey side of the building, not in Pacific Grove. So my question is can a city impose a tax on a financial transaction that occurs in another city? Just wondering. ----------- Addendum: The PG city council rejected the proposed tax at its May 2 council meeting.   

For the last three years I have been an affiliate advertiser for various companies, including Amazon.com. This relationship has allowed me to offer links to books, movies, and other products of local interest. In exchange I get a small commission for every sale the links generate. On Wednesday Amazon affiliates in California were abruptly notified that due to a change in California sales tax law, all affiliate agreements involving California residents will be terminated effective immediately. Under previous law , the state could only require on-line retailers who had a physical presence - such as a store or warehouse - in the state to collect sales taxes on sales to California residents. This set up a major imbalance between on-line retailers like Borders, Barnes & Noble, Staples, Best Buy and the like, who have actual stores in the state, and retailers that operate strictly on-line from outside the state, like Amazon. The new law simply states that California based webs...

Political campaigns are frequently known for stretching, twisting, and mangling the truth, but a kernel of truth usually remains. Take, for example, the statement by Jerry Brown that he would not raise taxes without a vote of the people (a reasonable position, one that puts the voter in control). However, his opponent twisted that around to say Brown wants to ask voters for more tax increases. There is still truth in that, but the emphasis is altered.   Outright lies are pretty uncommon. Yet two of this year's campaign ads have resorted to lies. Not twisted truths, but bona fide, genuine, actual lies.   Take Proposition 24's opponents. They call Proposition 24 a "tax increase." That is a lie.  Prop. 24 is a confusing offering. During the 2008 state budget process (and I use the term loosely), the legislature approved some tax breaks that primarily benefit a tiny percentage of large companies, many of which have their headquarters outside of California. Those...

For those of you who just crawled out from under a log, Measure Z is the proposed half-cent sales tax increase to pay for roads, plus a few bus routes, in Monterey County. While there may be some good reasons to support it, I'm not jumping on the pro-Z bandwagon for three reasons. First, Measure Z is not the original version of the proposal as envisioned by the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. The original plan included a small percentage for much needed intercity passenger rail projects which have already been delayed several years for lack of funds. Unfortunately, county agriculture and tourism interests, the two largest industries in the county, said they wouldn't support the tax increase if rail was included. They didn't feel rail would do anything for them. TAMC caved in and now the measure is primarily directed towards roads. Big business has no business dictating transportation policy for the rest of us. Second, roads have traditionally been funded with ...