Lawmakers consider cutting tax board’s power

SACRAMENTO (AP) – Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Monday proposed stripping much of the power from a California board that collects nearly a third of the state’s revenue following a scathing audit that found questionable uses of money and employees’ time.

The Board of Equalization would lose the power to decide tax disputes and to collect most of the taxes and fees it assesses. Those functions and about 90 percent of staff would be transferred to newly created state departments led by Brown appointees.

An audit by the state Department of Finance earlier this year found that the agency misallo- cated tens of millions of dollars that it can’t explain and made unusual moves such as using well-paid tax auditors for “parking lot duty” at a promotional event.

The five-member elected board has been a popular landing spot for termlimited lawmakers and a launching pad for elected officials looking for a platform for a run for higher office.

“What we’ve seen is a picture of dysfunction,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who leads the Assembly Budget Committee, told reporters.

Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon all support the bill, their spokesmen said.

Board members, meanwhile, blasted the proposal as an overreach by lawmakers.

“This last-minute budget power grab would strip California taxpayers of their right to bring their tax appeals before their elected peers,” said George Runner, a Republican Board of Equalization member. “In its place the bill would establish yet another unelected and costly tax bureaucracy.”

The board collects more than $60 billion a year. It would continue to exist but its functions would be pared back to only those enshrined in the state constitution.