Politics
In California, where income inequality is stark, who deserves a tax rebate?
![In California, where income inequality is stark, who deserves a tax rebate? In California, where income inequality is stark, who deserves a tax rebate?](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1647605913_economy-gas-prices-64206.jpg)
In a state that’s residence to the nation’s highest poverty price, probably the most billionaires and a shrinking center class, who deserves money aid when costs are hovering?
That query is on the heart of ongoing discussions contained in the state Capitol as California grapples with a surge in gasoline prices and is projected to have a record-high finances and surplus.
A gaggle of Democrats is proposing sending a $400 rebate to each California taxpayer no matter earnings or in the event that they personal a gas-powered automotive. Republican lawmakers have pushed for a suspension of the fuel tax, an strategy they are saying would imply sooner aid and fewer negotiations. Gov. Gavin Newsom made a imprecise promise to “put a refund within the pockets” of Californians however has backed off a pitch to tie rebates to automobile possession.
Whereas a common checks-for-all program is more likely to be well-received by most of the people, lawmakers should resolve how far to stretch potential funding as they monitor income within the coming months, together with one of the best ways to deal with the hierarchy of California’s many wants.
Advocates throughout the state say that aid ought to start with extra for individuals who want it probably the most as a substitute of an equal share for all.
One thought is to ship further state funds to low-income residents already enrolled in safety-net packages or receiving the state’s Earned Revenue Tax Credit score. The credit score presently provides as much as $3,160 to tax filers incomes lower than $30,000.
Democratic leaders have signaled their assist for a plan that’s tailor-made to earnings stage, noting the state’s huge wealth hole.
“That’s precisely the kind of factor I’m in favor of,” Meeting Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) mentioned in an interview with The Instances on Wednesday. “Offering direct checks to CalWorks recipients and even sending a verify to tax filers of a sure stage — all of these are the kind of issues that could possibly be nice.”
Rendon mentioned in a press release Thursday that the $400-for-all plan “eliminates a few of the pitfalls of different proposals similar to a fuel tax vacation,” which Democrats have mentioned wouldn’t assist shoppers as a lot as a money cost they’ll spend on groceries, lease and different requirements. Democratic legislators additionally assist a plan that’s not particular to drivers, citing local weather considerations.
The speaker mentioned the newest plan, spearheaded by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine), “exhibits Californians that the Legislature goals to have their backs.” However he additionally mentioned Wednesday that he wouldn’t assist a proposal to ship checks to the very rich, naming for example Los Angeles-based billionaire philanthropist Gary Michelson, whom he known as a buddy.
“[Michelson] is a sweetheart of a person, however he doesn’t deserve a verify both,” Rendon mentioned. “Lots of people have suffered just lately. Plenty of Californians have been struggling, and we’re in search of an answer to offer monetary assist for these Californians specifically.”
Senate President Professional Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) mentioned earlier this week she’s pushing for “substantial aid, particularly for lower- and middle-income Californians” and “not simply those that are drivers.”
A brand new report by the nonpartisan Public Coverage Institute of California discovered that higher-income households spend extra on fuel and would obtain the biggest advantage of any fuel tax rebate or tax vacation.
Republican lawmakers voiced assist for the $400 plan however are nonetheless pushing for a fuel tax reduce along with a rebate. They argue that each one taxpayers deserve a reduce of the state’s flush finances, particularly because the wealthiest contribute extra in taxes.
“It’s a common sense response,” Assemblymember Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) mentioned at a information convention Thursday. “Now we have this surplus, what ought to we do with it? Possibly we must always return it to the oldsters that we received it from.”
Mike Herald, director of coverage advocacy for the Western Heart on Legislation & Poverty, sees the equity query otherwise.
The value of fuel is similar for everybody, at the same time as incomes fluctuate, he mentioned. Whereas some dwelling in poverty can’t afford to personal a automotive, low-income Californians are much less more likely to have an choice to work at home throughout the pandemic, and a automotive is a lifeline.
“We do issues like this lots, the place we enact insurance policies which have a disproportionate impression on lower-income people after which after we get into these type of disaster conditions, we don’t at all times make it possible for the oldsters which can be already paying an excessive amount of are the primary ones to get aid,” Herald mentioned.
Questions on fairness have positioned Democrats pushing the common rebate plan in a troublesome spot.
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), who helps the plan, mentioned it doesn’t should be a rebate for all or a rebate just for low-income residents — it may be each.
“The dimensions of the excess permits us to do each,” Gabriel mentioned at a information convention Thursday. “This isn’t going to be the one proposal on the desk. This isn’t the one factor we’re going to have the ability to do.”
If state officers undertake as a template the “Golden State Stimulus” pandemic aid mannequin from final yr, solely tax filers incomes as much as $75,000 a yr would obtain a cost.
However based on poverty measures adjusted for California’s price of dwelling, middle-class earnings for a household of 4 renting in Los Angeles County may attain greater than $227,605 and as much as $261,623 in components of the Bay Space.
“We all know in fact [the $75,000 limit] is just not excessive sufficient to be center class in lots of components of the state, and I believe that’s a part of the strain that the administration is specializing in — making an attempt to deal with that there are low-income Californians which can be affected very negatively by risings prices but in addition middle-income Californians challenged by the state’s price of dwelling,” mentioned Chris Hoene, director of the California Price range & Coverage Heart. “The fact is there’s plenty of totally different ways in which people with totally different incomes wrestle to get by on this state.”
Hoene, whose group advocates for packages aimed on the state’s lowest-income residents, known as the Golden State Stimulus “effectively structured,” and mentioned his major concern is reducing into the state finances to profit the rich.
“What we wish to attempt to keep away from is, in essence, losing the state’s sources by giving the credit score to Californians who aren’t in want right now,” he mentioned.
Newsom administration officers mentioned particulars on his tax rebate plan will come subsequent week, and pointed to pre-existing initiatives which can be “targeted on enhancing affordability,” together with state-funded healthcare and youngster care.
“The governor is dedicated to bringing actual aid to struggling Californians. We’re engaged on a proposal that helps Californians with rising fuel costs and supplies funding to public transit to allow them to present direct aid for riders,” spokesperson Erin Mellon mentioned Thursday.
Greater than a 3rd of Californians live at or close to the poverty line. On the identical time, nearly 1 in 4 tax returns filed in 2019 got here from taxpayers with an annual adjusted gross earnings of greater than $100,000, based on information compiled by the state Franchise Tax Board.
Households within the state’s lowest earnings bracket spend a bigger portion of their budgets on gasoline than different earnings brackets, based on the PPIC report. Center-income households additionally spend extra of their budgets on fuel than high-income households, based on the report.
Sarah Bohn, an economic system and poverty researcher for the institute, mentioned a extra focused strategy for the lowest-income households is finest, however a verify for all would possible be simpler for the state to manage — and a few middle-class Californians who don’t qualify for public help may additionally use the assistance.
“The perfect method to do it, for my part, is to focus on those that are actually burdened by increased costs and haven’t seen rising earnings as a lot as different teams. However it’s tough to do, we don’t have plenty of mechanisms for that,” Bohn mentioned. “Many middle-class households are literally spending most of their sources on basic items of their finances after which they don’t have a ton left over.”
The dialogue over rebates has sparked a slew of debates about the kind of modifications to authorities coverage California wants within the face of a record-high finances, with curiosity teams clamoring for extra everlasting motion as a substitute of reducing one-time checks.
Local weather advocates mentioned any reward for gas-powered automobile house owners contradicts California’s environmental objectives.
Matthew Lewis, a spokesperson for California YIMBY — which stands for “Sure, in my again yard” — used the second to induce state officers to rethink housing coverage and staff’ dependence on commuting.
“It’s good coverage to assist lower-income individuals by giving them cash, however actually if the state desires to get severe about what these individuals really want, it’s reasonably priced housing nearer to their jobs. Giving individuals fuel tax rebates gained’t resolve this drawback,” he mentioned. “This can be a local weather coverage. The quantity you cost for gasoline is a local weather coverage, so let’s deal with it that manner.”
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Politics
Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills
![Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/AP24244812299639.jpg)
Black activists at the California assembly threatened a “direct impact” on Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign after state Democratic lawmakers held off on two bills that would have greenlighted slavery reparations.
Last week, the California legislature approved proposals allowing for the return of land or compensation to families whose property was unjustly seized by the government, and issuing a formal apology for laws and practices that have harmed Black people. But none of those bills would provide widespread direct payments to African Americans. After hours of heated debate and protests on Saturday, state lawmakers left out two bills – Senate Bills 1403 and 1331 – that would have created a fund and an agency to oversee reparation measures.
“The speaker needs to bring the bills up now, now, now. These are their bills. They have their names on the bills. They’re killing their own bills because they’re scared of the governor,” one Black man, a member of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, said in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year on Saturday. “Now listen, they’re gonna see this, and they’re gonna get mad at us. They killing their own bills, and then they’re gonna get mad at us. They’re killing their own bills because they’re scared of the governor. We don’t care. Bring the G– d— bills up now, now, now.”
“We need to send a message to the governor,” a Black woman who is part of the same group chimed in, according to video shared on X. “The governor needs to understand the world is watching California and this is gonna have a direct impact on your friend Kamala Harris who is running for president. This is going to have a direct impact, so pull up the bills now, vote on them and sign them. We’ve been waiting for over 400 years.”
“We have the votes,” the man added.
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER REACTS TO ‘CRAZY’ BILL THAT WOULD GIVE UNDOCUMENTED FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS MONEY
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, right, talks to members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California about two reparations bills in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
State Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the measures, said the bills failed to move forward out of fear that Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom would veto them.
“We’re at the finish line, and we, as the Black Caucus, owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, to Black Californians and Black Americans, to move this legislation forward,” Bradford said, urging his colleagues to reconsider Saturday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.
“We owe it to our ancestors,” Bradford added, according to the Sacramento Bee. “And I think we disappointed them in a way.”
California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Assemblymember Lori Wilson said Saturday that the Black Caucus pulled the bills, adding the proposals need more work.
“We knew from the very beginning that it was an uphill battle…. And we also knew from the very beginning that it would be a multiyear effort,” Wilson told reporters.
![Black activists demand California lawmakers take up reparations bills](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/AP24244812327525.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California protest in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
Newsom has not weighed in on most of the bills, but he signed a $297.9 billion budget in June that included up to $12 million for reparations legislation. However, the budget did not specify what proposals the money would be used for, and his administration has signaled its opposition to some of them. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to decide whether to sign the bills that passed.
SAN FRANCISCO TO BEGIN ‘EQUITY AUDIT’ OF CONTROVERSIAL STATUES: CONCENTRATION OF ‘WHITE SUPREMACY’
Democratic Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is Black, called his bill to issue a formal apology for discrimination “a labor of love.” His uncle was part of a group of Black students who in the 1950s were escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. The students became known as the “Little Rock Nine.”
![Black reparations activists at California legislature](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/AP24244812326156.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California demand lawmakers take up a vote on two reparations bill in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
“I think my grandmother, my grandfather, would be extremely proud for what we are going to do today,” Jones-Sawyer said ahead of the vote on the legislation that was passed. “Because that is why they struggled in 1957, so that I’d be able to — and we’d be able to — move forward our people.”
Newsom approved a law in 2020 creating a first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations proposals. New York and Illinois have since followed suit with similar legislation. The California group released a final report last year with more than 100 recommendations for lawmakers.
Newsom signed a law earlier this summer requiring school districts that receive state funding for a career education program to collect data on the performance of participating students by race and gender. The legislation, part of a reparations package backed by the California Legislative Black Caucus, aims to help address gaps in student outcomes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Politics
Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president?
![Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president? Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president?](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/82a042a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3518x1847+0+252/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F03%2Fad%2F280d56bc423c98543309d3f66721%2Ftrump-capitol-riot-78748.jpg)
By now, two months before the presidential election, we voters ought to have seen a verdict in the federal criminal case against the three-time Republican nominee accused of conspiring to overturn the result of the previous contest. (That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.)
But there is no verdict against defendant Donald Trump, U.S. history’s biggest sore loser, thanks to the Supreme Court. Its right-wing super-majority — half of whom were selected by Trump, and two of whom should have recused themselves — dallied for half the year before issuing a surreal ruling in July granting the former president, and all future presidents, broad immunity from criminal liability for official acts, even for purportedly official acts intended to dynamite democracy’s foundation: free and fair elections.
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
So much for no person being above the law.
Thanks to special counsel Jack Smith, however, voters at least have a revised indictment against Trump in the Jan. 6 case. On Tuesday a new grand jury charged him with the same four conspiracy and obstruction crimes alleged in last year’s indictment, stripped of supporting material that might run afoul of the Supreme Court’s new tests for what is or isn’t an official act.
It’s far too late for a trial, and hence a verdict, before Nov. 5. And Trump’s team almost certainly will argue all the way back to the high court that Smith’s “superseding indictment” violates the justices’ immunity ruling.
Yet if nothing else, the retooled indictment is a useful refresher for those who’ve forgotten about, or become inured to, Trump’s antidemocratic outrages, the ones that made him the first American president to resist the peaceful transfer of power.
And more than that, the charges are a reminder about just why Trump wants to be president again: to avoid criminal liability and possibly prison. If reelected, he could thwart the rule of law, not uphold it as the oath of office demands. Trump could — would — make the Jan. 6 case go away, along with the separate federal charges against him for keeping classified documents. While he’s at it, he has promised to pardon hundreds of charged and convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionists, whom he grossly calls government “hostages.” He could also pardon himself, of course, for his alleged federal crimes (but not state charges).
After the grand jury action last week, former Justice Department official and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann helpfully tweeted, “For those counting, FIVE separate grand juries (scores of citizens) have now found probable cause that Trump committed multiple felonies.”
Yes, for all of Trump’s daily lies that he’s being railroaded by “the Biden-Harris Regime” and its “weaponized” Justice Department, the facts are that many average Americans have heard evidence and decided against Trump. They’ve done so not only in those five grand juries, but also in several state trial juries that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star from voters before the 2016 election.
With that last judgment, Trump achieved another contemptible first: No other president has been convicted of felonies. Sentencing in the hush money case, in New York, was delayed until Sept. 18, thanks to the confusion spawned by the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and Trump has asked for a further delay — past election day, natch. Judge Juan M. Merchan should proceed with the sentencing. Sure, Trump would cry foul. But all we’ve seen to date is excessive legal deference toward the lawless former president, his incessant whining about witch hunts notwithstanding.
Which brings us back to Smith’s overhauled Jan. 6 indictment, and its welcome reminder of Trump’s unprecedented power grab. The 36 pages are a maddening must-read for undecided voters, a ticktock of his falsehoods and scheming from the 2020 election through the violence of Jan. 6, 2021. Yet nearly four years later, instead of being held responsible, Trump is a candidate for reelection.
Smith strained to steer clear of Trump’s supposedly official acts, in keeping with the Supreme Court’s warped ruling. Out, for example, are accounts of his vile efforts to force Justice Department aides to lie about election fraud, as a pretext for lawsuits; they were his executive branch employees. But campaign advisors should be fair game for the prosecutors, and the indictment still recounts Trump’s refusals to accept their assertions and proof that he’d lost, that there was no fraud. Trump instead kept his aides spreading lies — “conspiracy s— beamed down from the mothership,” one wrote in an email cited in the indictment — and working on illegal slates of alternative state electors.
The document retains some details of Trump’s belittling pressure on Vice President Mike Pence. “You’re too honest,” the liar in chief once erupted, exasperated that Pence wouldn’t agree to throw out the electoral votes of pro-Biden battleground states during Congress’ Jan. 6 certification. And it includes Trump’s private and public haranguing of state officials to do his illegal bidding; they’re not feds, and presidents have no official role in states’ vote-counting.
Alas, for now all we have, still, are the charges, no trial and no verdict. But that fact defines the stakes for the 2024 election: A vote for Trump is a vote against his accountability. It’s really that simple.
@jackiekcalmes
Politics
Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery
![Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/kamala-graves-arlington-1.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris was recently excoriated by Gold Star family members who accused the Democratic presidential candidate of politicizing an incident at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.
The messages were posted on former President Trump’s Instagram account. Eight videos, each featuring different parents of service members killed by ISIS-K terrorists amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021, were published in total.
The videos were released in the wake of a statement published by Harris on Saturday, where the vice president criticized Trump for taking photographs at a wreath-laying ceremony event on Monday. The Army said this week that an Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” while interacting with Trump’s staff.
“As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times,” Harris said. “It is not a place for politics. And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff.”
TRUMP IMPERSONATES ELON MUSK TALKING ABOUT ROCKETS: ‘I’M DOING A NEW STAINLESS STEEL HUB’
Kamala Harris was called out by Gold Star families over a statement she released about Trump on Saturday. (Getty Images)
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” she claimed, before adding that she would “never politicize” such an event.
The Gold Star family members maintained that they had asked Trump for photographs, as opposed to Trump taking pictures to advance his campaign. In one video, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz called Harris’ post “heinous, vile and disgusting.”
“Why did we want Trump there? It wasn’t to help his political campaign,” Mark Schmitz said in the video. “We wanted a leader. That explains why you and Joe didn’t get a call.”
Darren Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, said that Harris lacks “empathy and basic understanding” about Monday’s event, and stressed that Trump’s appearance was respectful.
HARRIS SLAMS TRUMP OVER ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY ALTERCATION, PROMPTING FIERY RESPONSE FROM JD VANCE
![Trump Harris split image](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/Copy-of-Side-by-Side-split-9.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Vice President Kamala Harris slammed former President Donald Trump over last week’s incident at Arlington National Cemetery. (Getty Images)
“In keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there, we invited President Trump,” he said. “We are the ones that asked for the video and the pictures to be taken at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
Hoover also added that Trump has “been there for us from the very beginning,” and criticized Harris for “playing politics” over the incident.
“You should be ashamed and embarrassed [about] your lack of empathy and decency as a human being,” the father added. “You are only in this for the power and prestige. You don’t care for our military or the citizens of this country.
![Trump at Arizona rally](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/AP24237043125176.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“You should hang your head in shame at your actions or lack thereof.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
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