Taxes add 9% to a Cost of Wood in Placerville

Surprise!

Few would deny that the Building Trades Industry has taken the hardest hit during the current economic mess. Shamefully, that fact is of no concern to our elected officials. The “Special Notice” that I got this week from the State Board of Equalization, the same people who not too long ago brought us the loveable $150 “Fire Prevention Assessment” reads in part from the introduction:

“Beginning January 1, 2013, purchases of lumber products and engineered wood products for use in California will be subject to a one percent (1%) assessment based on the selling price of the products.”

I just love the word “Assessment.” In other words, when you go to Home Depot on Placerville Drive in the new year and buy a two-by-four you’ll pay 9 percent sales tax (including the .25 percent 2013 voter approved rate increase) rather than the present 7.75 percent. An extra one and a quarter percent doesn’t seem like much right? But, spread that across the cost of wood materials for a new house and the amount is substantial. Is there no end to which the thieves in Sacramento will go to reach into our collective pockets? Do the jokers down the road have a clue as to the negative effect this so called “Assessment” which is in truth a”Tax” will have on new home construction and remodeling? I think not. Do they care? Obviously, they do not.

More proof of just how out of touch our elected leaders are is evidenced in additional correspondence I received recently. That letter was from the Franchise Tax Board proudly informing me that the annual fee for my State Contractor License was being increased from $300 to $360. You see, when times are tough and folks can’t find work or can’t afford to work or leave the state to find work and the tax payer base is thinned, the answer for the mental midgets in Sacramento is to raise taxes on everybody else still here and lucky enough to have a job.

You bleeding heart liberals out there, and you know who you are, who vote for style over substance and a continuation of the over-spending, ever-increasing free ride and more government, is the answer society is giving us exactly what you deserve. Keep it up and soon there’ll be only movie actors and a handful of malcontents left in California. I suspect that neither of which likely have brains enough to turn the lights out when they finally leave.

HAL PETRIE
Placerville