Contributor

Ray Haynes

Mr. Haynes is an Assembly member representing Riverside and Temecula. He serves on the Appropriations and Budget Committees. [go to Assembly Member Haynes website at California Assembly]

Pull My Trigger. . .
An unaccountable, self-triggering tax that only a liberal could love
[Ray Haynes] 6/28/03

There has been much discussion, wailing and gnashing of teeth in California in recent months as taxpayers learn about the decision to triple our car tax. Every bit as maddening as the increase itself (a $20,000 vehicle’s tax will roughly go from $150 to $450) is the sneaky, underhanded way that the majority party is doing it.

Back in February, Speaker Herb Wesson was willing to do it the semi-honest way. While they claimed they only needed a simple majority to triple the tax, instead of the 2/3 vote the state constitution requires, they did require most of their members to put their votes on the line and tried to force the Governor to take a position on the issue. Governor Doubletalk was too tricky to fall for that, though. He publicly proclaimed that the bill was unnecessary and that he would not sign it. A victory for taxpayers? Not quite. He simultaneously sent a letter to the Speaker telling him that the alchemists in his legal office had cooked up a scheme to increase the car tax without anyone being held responsible for it.

The “trigger” was born. Described by some as “immaculate taxation”, the idea behind it was that when the legislation that cut the car tax was passed, a little known (and totally un-debated) provision was inserted that allowed the tax to be increased automatically in the future if we ever ran out of money. Nobody would have to vote for it, nobody would have to support it, it would just magically be triggered when we reached a certain financial state.

The beauty of this tax increase is that it apparently pulls its own trigger! In a further feat of unaccountability, the Governor’s lawyers decided that the person who could decide that we were officially out of money could be his un-elected (and therefore unaccountable) Finance Director. Even he wouldn’t actually increase the tax, he would merely mutter the magic words “We’re broke!” and somewhere under the silk scarf, the trigger would be pulled and the car tax would triple itself.

This whole scene explains a lot about the liberals in Sacramento. It certainly explains some of their firearms-phobia. If they truly believe that triggers can pull themselves without anybody else being held responsible, it is no wonder they have such an irrational fear of guns. It also explains why they have been so reluctant for so long to punish those who actually mis-use guns. After all, it wasn’t their fault, the trigger pulled itself!!!

I’m not a shooter myself, but I was given a blackpowder revolver for my support of the right to self-defense, and I keep it in a framed box behind my desk. I’d heard a lot of bad things about guns, so I wanted to keep it where I could see it. I can report that after five years of watching that thing, the trigger has yet to pull itself. I’ve talked to others on my staff who own more guns than I do, and they are quite insistent that none of their guns have ever pulled their own triggers, either. In fact, it appears that somebody is directly responsible for every trigger that is pulled, whether intentionally or accidentally.

Somebody is responsible for pulling the car tax trigger, too. The attorney’s hired by the Republican caucus have told us that the tax increase cannot be triggered in this way. We have already prepared the lawsuit to prevent this illegal tax increase the day it goes into effect. We have also identified who is responsible for pulling this trigger. According to the newspapers, the Governor who was responsible for pulling the car tax trigger (and inventing the whole crazy concept) may well be punished for his negligent discharge, just as someone who negligently causes damage with a firearm would be.

By November we’ll have a new Governor who will take responsibility for what he is doing and will put the car tax and its revenues back where it belongs—out of the hands of the Sacramento spending lobby and back into the pockets of California’s taxpayers.