Jerry Brown — a tax reformer?
The Washington-based Tax Foundation is an impeccable source of accurate information about state and local taxation, albeit with a decidedly conservative tilt.
It was a little odd, therefore, that Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of one of the nation’s highest-taxing states, just received one of the Tax Foundation’s annual awards for “outstanding achievement in state tax reform.”
The organization’s honorees are mostly Republicans, but it cites Brown “for colorful vetoes of targeted tax breaks which have helped California maintain some semblance of a broad tax base and improved its fiscal position.
“Gov. Brown consistently vetoed popular proposed tax breaks, saying legislators should instead work through the annual budget process and balance those wants with other priorities. “California has more work to do on fiscal solvency and tax climate, but Gov. Brown’s demand for thoughtfulness and process in creating new tax breaks should be emulated by his successors.”
The award is fairly welldeserved, as far as it goes. Brown did persuade the Legislature to eliminate an “enterprise zone” tax break for business that never came close to living up to its promise, but survived for several decades despite that deficiency. And he did resist most of the Legislature’s proposals to punch loopholes in the state’s already riddled taxation systems.
However, he also championed the expansion of a welfarefor-the-wealthy tax break for California film producers who promised to shoot their creations in the state, rather than take advantage of tax breaks in other states and nations.
It had been launched by Brown’s predecessor, actorturned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, reflecting the thrall that envelops California politicians when it comes to Hollywood, even though movie and television production is a tiny factor in the state’s $2.6 trillion a year economy.
“We find that about one-third of the film and television projects receiving incentives under this program would probably have been made in California anyway,” the Legislature’s budget analyst, Mac Taylor, said in one of his office’s periodic critiques of the loophole.
Moreover, notwithstanding his elimination of enterprise zones, Brown has been missing in action on comprehensive reform of California’s dangerously imbalanced and outdated tax systems.
Schwarzenegger, at least, took a stab at reform. He and legislative leaders appointed a blue-ribbon commission, headed by businessman Gerry Parsky, to study the systems and suggest how they could be improved, particularly as far as reducing revenue volatility.
That volatility has meant state and local budgets go through periodic boom-andbust cycles.
Although rent by internal conflict, the commission did finally recommend reducing the state’s dependence on personal income taxes and recasting the sales tax in a way to extend it to services.
Its report was quickly filed without action, and while Brown has acknowledged the need for reform to create more revenue stability, he has studiously refused to champion it.
Implicitly, he’s shied away from reform because it would be extraordinarily difficult, drawing flak from powerful economic interests, with no guarantee of success.
Most of those honored by the Tax Foundation this year, including Democrats such as Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, took a big-picture approach, while Brown played small ball.
Brown will, therefore, bequeath to his successor a tax system that at best makes little sense in the 21st century and at worst could trigger a future fiscal meltdown.