Re: Timm Herdt’s Sept. 20 essay, “A tax that would go away�:
You write that this $4 billion tax is a “closed-looped tax� that goes away when it pays off the bonds it creates — money that can be spent outside of California and even outside of the United States, by the way.
Well, the independent legislative analyst reports that payoff is at least 10 years away. It’s probably closer to 20 or more, so warn your grandkids. And if you listen to economists, they reason that the “tax structure� of Proposition 87 fails to recognize that the annual tax it creates may well fall short of paying off the annual bond debt. What happens then? You guessed right. Taxpayers are again hit for the additional debt in the form of larger interest payments and lower bond ratings.
Proposition 87 is insensitive to the reality that taxpayers already pay enough, not to mention paying for things that may not even be spent in California. And if they are asked to pay more, they want something tangible in return, not pie in the sky.
— Wolf E. Regener, Camarillo
Leave a comment