A new bill proposed by a California State Senator would have wealthy part-time California residents pay state taxes while those making less than $100,000 would pay no state taxes at all.
Jeff Stone’s Senate Bill 1352 would eliminate state income tax for 90 percent of Californians who make $100,000 or less as an individual or $200,000 as a couple. It would make up the lost revenue by having part-time residents who earn more than $100,000 a year and own a second home in California pay income tax based on the amount of time they live in the state.
Currently, people can live in California for up to nine months and still be considered a part-time resident.
“This is going to create some winners and this is going to create some losers, but the ones who are losers are the ones that are selfishly not wanting to contribute to our tax base here in California,” Stone told KESQ.
Stone had a tougher time explaining his plan to the Desert Sun:
“You got Bill Gates who lives in Indian Wells, Larry Ellison who lives in Rancho Mirage. I’d like to know, does Larry Ellison call California his home? Does Bill Gates call California his home? I’m going to bet you hundred to one that they don’t,” Stone said.
Actually, though Gates officially resides in Seattle, Oracle founder Ellison’s official residence is in Woodside, California. (Ellison also owns multiple homes in Malibu and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to fund medical research at various university hospitals in California.)
Stone, however, is undeterred by such details.
“They’re worth tens of billions of dollars,” he says of the pair, who are both major philanthropists. “You mean to tell me they can’t pay some state income tax here in California based on their time spent here in the Golden State? Why should they be let off the hook? They can certainly afford to help pay for better schools, roads and our airports. They use Thermal Airport when they fly their private jets … They’re impacting our airports, they’re impacting our streets, they’re impacting our schools, and they should be paying their fair share like everybody else. They can certainly afford to do so.”
And while it would be nice if more people payed their fair share when it came to taxes (I’m looking at you out-of-state car registrations all over Highway 111), Stone’s bill is in the early stages and many think it doesn’t have much of a chance to actually happen, including Rancho Mirage mayor Charles Townsend who asked the Desert Sun, “Look at his record over the past six years, has anything he’s proposed gotten done?”
