The 67th Assembly District GOP primary campaign has been largely eclipsed by the special election in the 35th Senate District. But as the primary draws closer, the fur is starting to fly there, as well.
Cypress Councilman Mike McGill's campaign has been picking up momentum recently. He's dumped $120,000 of his own dinero into the race, recently hired veteran consultant Joe Giardiello, and is busily trying to position himself as the most conservative candidate in the three-way primary (against Dianne Harman and Jim Silva).
A little bird has told hipped me to McGill's April 13, 2003 vote as a Cypress councilman to support SCA 2 (Sen. Torlakson) and ACA 7 (Assemblyman Dutra).
Here's SCA 2:
SCA 2, as amended, Torlakson. Local government: sales taxes: transportation and smart growth planning.
The California Constitution conditions the imposition of a special tax by a city, county, or special district upon the approval of 2/3 of the voters of the city, county, or special district voting on that tax, and prohibits these entities from imposing an ad valorem tax on real property or a transactions or sales tax on the sale of real property.
This measure would authorize a city, a county, a city and county, a local transportation authority, or a regional transportation agency, as defined, with the approval of a majority of its voters voting on the proposition, to impose a special tax for the privilege of selling tangible personal property at retail that it is otherwise authorized to impose, if the tax is imposed exclusively to fund transportation projects and services and smart growth planning, as defined.
And here's ACA 7:
ACA 7, as amended, Dutra. Transportation funding: sales and use tax.
The California Constitution conditions the imposition of a special tax by a city, county, or special district upon the approval of 2/3 of the voters of the city, county, or special district voting on that tax, and prohibits these entities from imposing an ad valorem tax on real property or a transactions or sales tax on the sale of real property. Existing statutory provisions and provisions in the California Constitution either impose or authorize the imposition of state or local sales and use taxes upon the gross receipts from the sale within the taxing jurisdiction of, or the storage, use, or other consumption in this jurisdiction of, tangible personal property.
This measure would authorize a county, a city and county, local transportation agency and a regional transportation agency, as defined, notwithstanding any other provision of the California Constitution, to impose an additional sales and use tax for a period of 20 to 30 years, as specified, at a rate of 0.5% exclusively for transportation purposes within the jurisdiction of the county, city and county, local or regional transportation agency if the additional tax is approved by 55% of the voters of the jurisdiction voting on the proposition to impose the tax.
This measure would require the revenues derived from these taxes to be deposited in the Local Transportation Infrastructure Account, which would be created in the State Transportation Fund. The measure would require the State Board of Equalization to collect and administer the tax revenue. The measure would require moneys in the account that were collected in each county, city and county, local or regional transportation agency, less administrative costs and refunds, to be allocated by the State Board of Equalization to the county, city and county, local or regional transportation agency imposing the tax, and to be used for specified transportation purposes.
In plain English, SCA 2 and ACA 7 are Democrat measures to weaken Proposition 13 by lowering the 2/3 threshold for local tax increases. SCA 2 would lower the threshold to 50% for certain taxes and ACA 7 would lower it to 55%.
I guess the McGill campaign can rule out the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association endorsement.
