Senator Wiener: California Should Not Slash State Income Taxes & Public Services in Response to Trump/GOP Tax Plan

December 21, 2017

San Francisco –  Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement on how California should respond to the massive corporate tax cut passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, paid for in part by increasing taxes on Californians:

Now that Congress has passed the atrocious Trump/GOP tax bill - which takes direct aim at California by limiting state and local tax deductions - some are already advocating that we slash our state income tax. I don’t agree, and I won’t be a party to gutting public services in California. Backing down and abandoning your ideals - like progressive taxation and robust public services - isn’t how you respond to a bully like Trump. Rather, you respond to a bully by pushing back hard.

Trump and the extreme right *want* a race to the bottom among the states. They *want* us to over-react, slash taxes, and gut public education, UC/CSU, transportation funding, senior services, healthcare for low income children, and so forth. They *want* California and other blue states to be more like Arkansas and Mississippi - low taxes, low public services.

California certainly has its problems, and we should always be willing to reexamine and reform our tax system. I’m all for that. But California tax reform should be on the merits and not a knee-jerk reaction to a despicable federal tax bill rammed through by Trump and his Congressional cronies without a single Democratic vote.

Californians - myself included - will feel pain due to this tax scam bill. It pains me that people in this state who are struggling will now have to pay more to the federal government, money that will go to corporations. The correct response for California is to do everything we can, now and when we take back Congress, to repeal as much of this tax bill as humanly possible.”