Can we afford fresh air?

Sometimes it looks as though there are no good answers to the problems that plague Californians. Yesterday, as reported in the S.F. Chronicle, the EPA recommended strict new limits on smog. Many parents who have watched their children suffer from asthma will be grateful for stricter standards. Elderly people who have trouble breathing when the air gets bad will also welcome the change. But progress seldom comes without a price to be paid. Stricter controls will cost corporations money for new equipment and will cost county governments money for enforcement. San Franciscans are lucky that their air already meets the new standards, but all of us occasionally venture into other counties. Even the pristine beauty of Napa County isn't safe from having unacceptable air quality. Is there any solution that will be palatable to everyone? Probably not. Concerned citizens can be careful about their own carbon-producing activities like unnecessary driving, especially on Spare the Air days, but government regulation is what is really needed. Probably also needed are new tax revenues to pay for the regulation. What is the best way to share the costs of improving life for all of us? California needs tax reform, as Governor Schwarzenegger mentioned in his state of the state speech. We should all support the movement to put the state's fiscal house in order. Everyone needs fresh air to live, even in golden California.

Fixing a tax loophole

The fiasco of the Special Election on May 19 has made it clear that California must make some changes to its budget process. Prop 13, the ballot measure passed in 1978, has been an impediment to sensible budget planning for thirty years, but no legislator has faced up to the challenge of changing it. Now Phil Ting, San Francisco's Assessor-Recorder presents a plan to close at least one large loophole. According to Ting, the people who get most from Prop 13 are large corporations which no longer bear the brunt of property taxes. Commercial property owners paid only 43 percent of property taxes in 2008, while residential property owners paid 57 percent. If the rules were changed so that corporations paid their fair share, California would benefit from increased revenue and a large burden would be removed from many middle-class citizens. The League of Women Voters supports this reform. Let's hope the legislators have the courage to stand firm against corporate lobbyists and make Prop 13 work the way it was intended to work, protecting homeowners, not businesses.