By: Carey Wedler The Lead
Californias new governor has wasted little
time continuing the states seemingly limitless expansion of government. Governor
Gavin Newsoms first budget proposal published last week suggests instituting
a tax on drinking water in the name of cleaning up Californias water systems.
The Environmental Protection" section of the
2019-2020 budget seeks
to
establish a new special fund with a dedicated funding source
from new water fertilizer and dairy fees to enable the State Water Resources
Control Board to assist communities particularly disadvantaged communities in
paying for the short-term and long-term costs of obtaining access to safe and
affordable drinking water.
The Definition of Insanity
Californias drinking water quality is indeed
poor. Communities throughout the state struggle with
dangerous pollutants in their supply but opponents of the suggested tax say
there is no need to tax residents in order to solve the problem.
Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer
Association has argued that the proposal is an example of Californias
knee-jerk reaction to default to a new tax whenever theres a new problem"
the Sacramento Bee reported.
(In another example last year bureaucrats proposed a
new tax on text messages that was ultimately shot down.) Coupal says there
shouldnt be new taxes for water system improvements when the state is sitting
on a $14.2 billion surplus.
Similarly the California Association of Water
Agencies a coalition of public water agencies throughout the state has expressed opposition
to the proposed tax arguing that in light of the current surplus a trust
should be established to fund water clean-up efforts. The state
should not tax something that is essential to life such as water and
food they said in a press release adding that the costs of living in
California are already too high and that another tax would make water less
affordable.
Further significant funding has already been
allocated to help clean up water in disadvantaged communities which experience
disproportionate levels of polluted drinking water. For example Assembly
Bill 1471 passed in 2014 authorized$260
million for grants and loans for public water system infrastructure
improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water standards ensure
affordable drinking water or both."
In 2015 as part of the emergency drought
funding then-Governor Jerry Brown approved an additional $19 million in
funding was allocated to meet interim
emergency drinking water needs for disadvantaged communities with a
contaminated water supply or suffering from drought-related water outages or
threatened emergencies" according to
the state water board.
In June of last year voters approved Proposition
68 which authorized $250 million for clean drinking water projects as well as
drought preparedness measures.
Further in December the EPA awarded California
$187 billion in federal funds for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure
improvements."
New Governor Old Politics
California already has one of the largest tax
burdens in the country. Its top tier income rate is the highest at 13.3
percent as is its sales tax rate of 7.25 percent. In 2017 the state collected $82
billion in tax revenuenearly $4 billion more than expected.
Nevertheless Newsom is modeling his new tax
proposal on a funding bill state lawmakers rejected last year. According to his
budget This proposal is consistent with the policy framework of SB 623
introduced in the 2017-18 legislative session."
That bill sought
to tax both homes and businesses to raise money for water cleanup and would
have been capped at
95 cents per month but it died in the Senate. (A similar attempt to tax drinking
water in the state of New Jersey also languished in that states legislature
last year.)
It appears voters could be growing apprehensive
toward new fees for drinking water considering they defeated Proposition
3in last years election which would have allocated $500
million in bond funding to help the states water suppliers meet safe drinking
water standards.
Newsoms push has received praise from
environmental groups but the Sacramento
Bee reports that
while the budget has an increased chance of passing since Democrats regained
their supermajority in the legislature some Democrats are hesitant to approve
new taxes on drinking water.
Considering the hundreds of millions of dollars
that have already been allocated to fix the water problem it seems the bigger
issue isnt a lack of funding but an excess of bureaucracy
