Tax and Revenue Policy

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Summary
• Keep revenue stable without new broad-based taxes, while delivering targeted relief and proving results with transparent, audited outcomes.
• Who it helps: Working families, seniors, essential workers, small businesses, and every county through predictable funding and fair formulas.
• Accountability: Quarterly public reporting, clear KPIs tied to outcomes, and independent auditing written into statute.

Guiding principles
• Simplify taxes and credits so people can understand what they owe and what they get.
• Deliver fairness through targeted credits and formula-based county support, not complex add-ons.
• Tie public dollars to measurable outcomes with privacy-safe transparency and enforceable oversight.

Goals
• Maintain predictable revenue for core services.
• Provide targeted tax relief without creating new broad-based taxes.
• Fund infrastructure statewide with fair county allocations.
• Prove performance through measurable KPIs, public reporting, and independent audits.
• Protect privacy and civil liberties while improving transparency.

Plan & Policy

I. Personal Income Tax That Stays Predictable
Goals:
• Keep the progressive structure stable and easy to understand.
• Remove perceived hidden taxes and legal ambiguity.
• Deliver relief through straightforward credits.
Actions:
• Retain the progressive personal income tax structure (2% to 11%).
• Remove the flat hybrid surtax concept.
• Deliver targeted relief as standardized tax credits for seniors and essential workers.
• Use clear eligibility rules and standardized caps to reduce bureaucracy and privacy risk.
Impacts:
• No new broad-based tax layer added to middle incomes.
• Clearer compliance and fewer legal and technical uncertainties.
• Targeted relief that is predictable, simpler to administer, and easier to explain.

II. Corporate and Business Taxes With Tiered Fairness
Goals:
• Keep California competitive while ensuring large firms contribute fairly.
• Avoid uneven local add-ons that create county-by-county complexity.
• Make incentives verifiable, capped, and transparent.
Actions:
• Retain tiered corporate rates: small 2.5%, mid 6%, large 8% to 9%.
• Remove local option business taxes and replace them with statewide county infrastructure grants.
• Streamline payroll credits by capping them and making eligibility criteria public and consistent.
• Limit data collection to what is necessary for compliance.
Impacts:
• Reduced uncertainty for employers and investors.
• Less incentive for tax-motivated relocation driven by unpredictable local add-ons.
• More credible incentives that are harder to capture through lobbying.

III. Targeted Tax Relief Programs That Are Budget Neutral
Goals:
• Support seniors, essential workers, and small businesses without destabilizing revenue.
• Reduce paperwork for legitimate Californians by using eligibility that can be verified through existing tax and payroll data, then apply fraud controls behind the scenes: identity verification, risk-based screening, targeted audits, and tight payment safeguards that block suspicious payouts..
• Prevent sudden budget shocks.
Actions:
• Preserve targeted credits for seniors, essential workers, and small businesses.
• Standardize maximum annual credit amounts.
• Phase in credits gradually with clear thresholds.
• Fund credits through revenue growth and verified efficiency savings rather than speculative new surtaxes.
Impacts:
• Relief remains predictable and easier to administer.
• Lower privacy risk and less bureaucracy compared to complex means-testing.
• Protection against budget surprises from overly generous, fast rollouts.

IV. Infrastructure and Revenue Alignment With Measurable Outcomes
Goals:
• Ensure infrastructure dollars produce visible, verifiable results.
• Make reporting simple enough for the public to understand.
• Keep rules durable through enforceable legislation.
Actions:
• Fund infrastructure from existing revenues and growth, not new surtaxes.
• Use simplified KPIs tied to outputs people recognize:
- Miles of roads maintained
- Bridges inspected and repaired
- Project delivery on time and on budget
- Require quarterly public reporting by law.
- Write enforceability into statute so reporting is not optional.
Impacts:
• Less room for vague metrics and post-hoc justifications.
• More trust that spending is linked to results.
• Clearer performance comparison across agencies and regions.

V. Transparency and Oversight With Privacy Protection
Goals:
• Make spending outcomes transparent without exposing personal data.
• Ensure oversight is independent and effective.
• Keep reporting sustainable and reliable over time.
Actions:
• Maintain digital dashboards using aggregated and anonymized reporting.
• Mandate an independent auditor by statute.
• Publish revenue versus outcomes on a public-facing dashboard.
• Keep scenario modeling internal while publishing clear summaries of assumptions and outcomes.
Impacts:
• Better public visibility without turning transparency into surveillance.
• Stronger credibility with voters, watchdogs, and bond markets.
• Faster identification of waste, delays, and underperformance.

VI. Political Resilience and Fair County Support
Goals:
• Reduce urban-rural distrust and ensure every county benefits.
• Prevent policy capture by narrow interests.
• Keep climate and capital decisions explicit and accountable.
Actions:
• Use formula-based county infrastructure grants with a guaranteed minimum allocation per county.
• Require explicit capital allocation votes for optional climate projects.
• Make credits flat, predictable, and legislatively backed to reduce backroom deal-making.
• Publish allocation formulas, award amounts, and outcomes quarterly.
Impacts:
• More predictable funding across the state, including rural counties.
• Lower risk of perceived favoritism.
• Clearer separation between tax policy, credit policy, and spending choices.

Safeguards
• Rights and civil liberties:
- Privacy-first transparency using aggregated, anonymized public reporting.
- Strict limits on personal data collection for credits and payroll-related incentives.
• Risk checks, transparency, audits:
- Independent auditor mandated by statute with published findings.
- Quarterly reporting requirements that cannot be skipped by agencies.
- Clear KPI definitions to reduce metric gaming.
• Rollback or pause triggers:
- Automatic pause on credit expansion if budget-neutrality thresholds are missed.
- Pause or re-scope capital programs if cost overruns or delivery failures exceed defined limits.
- Triggered legislative review when audits flag repeated noncompliance.

• FAQs

  Does this plan raise taxes?
  No. It keeps the existing progressive income tax structure and removes the hybrid flat surtax concept. The plan focuses on targeted credits and measurable outcomes, not new broad-based taxes.

  Why remove the hybrid surtax idea?
  Because it created unnecessary political and legal vulnerability and could be framed as a hidden middle-class tax. Removing it simplifies compliance and avoids ambiguity.

  What happens to personal income taxes under this plan?
  The plan retains the progressive 2% to 11% structure and delivers targeted relief through standardized credits rather than adding a new surtax layer.

  How does the plan help seniors and essential workers?
  It provides straightforward tax credits with standardized caps and phased rollout to avoid budget shocks and reduce administrative burden.

  Are these credits means-tested?
  The plan aims to minimize intrusive means-testing and privacy risk by using clear eligibility rules, standardized caps, and minimal data collection where checks are required.

  What are the corporate tax changes?
  Tiered corporate rates are retained: small 2.5%, mid 6%, large 8% to 9%. Payroll credits are streamlined, capped, and made transparent.

  Will this drive businesses out of California?
  The plan is designed to reduce that risk by avoiding unpredictable local add-ons, keeping rules stable, and making incentives capped and predictable.

  Why remove local option business taxes for counties?
  Because local option taxes can disadvantage rural counties and create uneven rules. The plan replaces them with formula-based county infrastructure grants with minimum allocations.

  How does the plan ensure rural counties are treated fairly?
  Through statewide grants with a transparent formula and a guaranteed minimum allocation per county, paired with public reporting of allocations and outcomes.

  How will taxpayers know the money is being used well?
  Quarterly public reporting ties revenue to outcomes, and an independent auditor verifies performance. KPIs focus on visible outputs like roads maintained and bridges inspected.

  What does the public dashboard show, and does it protect privacy?
  It shows aggregated revenue and outcome data, not personal taxpayer information. The plan keeps transparency public while protecting privacy.

  Who audits this and is it expensive bureaucracy?
  An independent auditor is required by statute. The purpose is accountability and waste reduction, not expanding government for its own sake.

  What happens if revenue growth or savings do not materialize?
  Credits are capped and phased. If budget-neutrality thresholds are not met, rollout pauses automatically and priorities are adjusted within existing funding.

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