Another new tax is headed for your water bill, as if it wasn’t high enough already.
Gov. Jerry Brown has been trying to push through a statewide tax on drinking water, the first ever in California history, and as you might imagine, it has been a challenge for him.
People are fed up with new taxes. That was demonstrated very convincingly in the June recall of state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton.
All the political tricks that were employed to save him — delaying the election, allowing voters to withdraw their signatures on petitions, lifting the cap on campaign contributions from other politicians — failed to prevent voters from firing the politician who cast a critical vote in favor of a huge increase in gas and car taxes.
That tax hike will face its own reckoning in November, when voters will have the opportunity to repeal it by passing Proposition 6, a ballot measure that also mandates voter approval of any future attempts to raise those taxes.
But despite the clear anger of the voters, or perhaps because of it, the trickery continues.
The water tax proposed in Senate Bill 845 would be “voluntary.”
Here’s the trick: Unless you opt out of paying it, you’ll pay it.
How do you opt out? It will be up to each “community water system” to figure that out, but you can bet the cost of the new paperwork will be added to your water bill some other way.
The purpose of the drinking water tax is to provide clean water for about a million rural residents in areas where the groundwater is contaminated.
That’s certainly important, and you’d think the state would fund that priority with some of the tax money Californians already pay.
You’d be wrong. California’s not run that way. Instead, you pay the highest state taxes in the nation, Sacramento spends all the money on things voters would never approve, and then for anything voters think is important, Sacramento insists on a new bond or tax.
Read your ballot this fall. Politicians are pleading for billions more to pay for water, veterans’ housing and children’s hospitals. No need to ask for more money to pay for state salary increases and Caltrans featherbedding — that’s covered already.
Connected to the proposed water-tax legislation is SB844, which would impose fees on dairy producers and companies that manufacture or distribute fertilizer.
The money would be deposited into the same “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund” set up by the bill that imposes the water tax.
But the dairy and fertilizer producers get something extra for their money: protection from pesky regulators at state and regional water boards.
SB844 prohibits certain enforcement actions for “causing or contributing to a condition of pollution or nuisance for nitrate in groundwater.”
The Agricultural Council of California and the Western United Dairymen are in support of these bills, as are the various environmental justice groups that are sure to receive grants from the new pot of money.
The Association of California Water Agencies opposes the legislation.
Nobody asked the water customers for their opinion, but if you’d like to give it to them, call Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon at 916-319-2063 and Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins at 916-651-4039, or call your representatives in the state Assembly and Senate. You can look up their names and contact information at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov. Don’t delay.
In Sacramento in August, legislation moves like you-know-what through a goose.
Susan Shelley is an editorial writer and columnist for the Southern California News Group. Susan@SusanShelley.com. Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.
