Senate Dems want corporate tax increase + Bill to let legislative staff unionize advances

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SENATE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR CORPORATE TAX INCREASE

Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, on Wednesday called for a tax increase on major corporations, such as Coca Cola and Walmart, in order to fund middle- and lower-income tax cuts as well as critical infrastructure projects in the 2023-24 budget.

The chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee unveiled Senate Democrats’ budget priorities, which is intended to be a starting point for negotiations with the Assembly and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

The Senate Democrats’ proposal includes $26 billion “in solutions” to close the $16.6 billion budget gap that Newsom’s office identified in January, and calls for a regular budget reserve of $5.1 billion and total reserves of $38.1 billion.

It also calls for rejecting Newsom’s proposed cuts to infrastructure spending, including mass transit, with Skinner saying “our intention is not to abandon transit at this time” during a Wednesday press conference.

In order to generate more revenue to close the budget gap without raising taxes on middle-class Californians, Skinner’s proposal calls for partially undoing the federal tax cuts for major corporations that President Donald Trump shepherded through Congress by increasing state taxes to make up the difference. The tax increase would affect about 2,500 businesses, Skinner said.

Revenue from that tax increase would pay for tax cuts for small businesses, renters, low-income Californians and union members, as well as creating targeted ongoing spending of $1 billion each for schools, child care and homelessness reduction.

“Budget actions we take can either harm our economy or help economic conditions,” Skinner said.

The California Chamber of Commerce wasn’t a fan of the proposed tax increase, with CalChamber President Jennifer Barrera saying in a statement that it is unnecessary because the state has built up its “rainy day” fund.

“Increasing taxes,” she said, “will send the wrong signals to job creators and investors in the state’s economy. Now is not the time to test California’s ability to withstand the impact of an economic downturn or a recession by placing our economic success at risk.”

Others, including Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget & Policy Center, praised the proposal.

“The Senate’s plan for a graduated corporate tax will help ensure that large profitable corporations fairly contribute to California’s tax revenues and support the services we all benefit from.,” Hoene said. “This is exactly the kind of policy solution California needs to better support communities across the state.”

BILL TO LET LEGISLATIVE STAFFERS UNIONIZE PASSES FIRST COMMITTEE VOTE

California legislative staffers are one step closer to being able to unionize, after the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee on Wednesday voted 6-1 to approve AB 1.

Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Central Valley, was the lone no vote.

Recall that last year, a similar biill — AB 1577 — was very nearly blocked from receiving a vote by then-committee Chair Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove; though Cooper later relented and let it go up for a vote, that bill failed, 2-4.

What changed?

For starters, that committee is now chaired by AB 1 author Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood.

For another, though committee Vice-Chair Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, lamented that the bill didn’t include everything he asked for, it did include a provision that minority party (i.e. Republican) staffers will be permitted to form collective bargaining units without worrying about being excluded on the basis of their politics.

“Minority party staffers have been treated inequitably in this institution for many years, with unequal pay for the same titles, and ability to participate in certain legislative-sanctioned caucuses and equal access to committee consultants,” Lackey said during Wednesday’s hearing.

That was enough to get Lackey’s vote.

Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said that last year’s bill failed due to “shenanigans.”

“I think it’s quite poetic that it’s AB 1, because we know that nothing happens in this building without our staff. And so if there were not our staff to do the incredible work that they do, there would be no AB’s after this,” Haney said.

In her closing remarks, McKinnor said “we’re setting an example for the rest of the country by working together, both Democrats and Republicans, to come up with a comprehensive solution for our employees to collective bargain for wages, benefits and workplace conditions.

“You know what they say, ‘As California goes, so goes the nation,’”McKinnor concluded.

Several dozen lobbyists, advocates and legislative staffers spoke out Wednesday in support of the bill, while no one spoke in opposition to it.

AB 1 now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Fresh off TN Republicans expelling two Black men from the Legislature, MT Republicans have now banned the state’s only trans legislator from the legislative chamber. This is what segregation looks like. This is what fascism looks like. This is a train wreck for our democracy.”

- Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• Julie Su survived her first Senate test Wednesday, but the next step in her quest to become Secretary of Labor remains highly uncertain, via David Lightman.

• The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to allocate millions of taxpayer dollars to pay for seven new employees who will assist in the county’s switch to manual ballot tallying. But the man behind the switch is paying a large price, too, via Jenavieve Hatch.

• A major German tech conglomerate has announced plans to acquire TSI Semiconductors in Roseville, transforming the locally owned circuit manufacturer within the next few years into a facility that will make state-of-the-art chips used in electric vehicles, via Michael McGough.

• Sen. Aisha Wahab’s controversial bill that would ban caste-based discrimination made its way through the Senate Judiciary committee Tuesday, and is heading to the Senate Appropriations Committee, via Jenavieve Hatch.

• Lawmakers want Gov. Gavin Newsom to devote an additional $200 million to flooding in the San Joaquin Valley as their districts recover from flood damage and face down the new threat of rapidly melting snow in the southern Sierra Nevada, via Ari Plachta.

• A federal judge tossed former California Congressman Devin Nunes’ lawsuit against a journalist and magazine that suggested his family’s Iowa dairy farm knowingly employed undocumented workers, via Gillian Brassil.