Patrick Mallon
Monday, Oct. 7, 2002

Only Vote Fraud Can Save Davis Now (9/30)
Is Simon Taking a Dive? (9/23)
The Tide Is Turning (9/16)
Davis and Apologists Fooling Themselves (9/9)
The Farce That Is Sacramento (9/3)
A Democratic Party Art Form - Inventing Voters (8/26)
Tammany Hall's Next Target - Simon's Faith (8/16)
California Governor's Race: Defying the Lies as Bombs Fly (8/9)
Stealth Agenda Trumps Academic Success in Schools (8/2)
Simon Survives Attacks, Davis Cons for Cash (7/26)
Paralyzed From Facing Reality (7/19)
California: Wanted! An Ethical Governor. Apply Within (7/15)

California’s counterfeit reporters have called them "budget solutions," larded lobbyists use "revenue enhancements," but let’s be straight and call what the governor did on Sept. 11, under cover of national mourning, a "breaking and entering," shoplifting from the last positive sanctuary of the state’s imploding economy:

REAL ESTATE

Do you own a second home or a property not your primary residence, maybe a vacation house or condo in Palm Springs or Tahoe? How about a rental property? Do you run a corporation? If so, make sure you have factored in paying the state 3 1/3 percent of the transaction value when you sell.

AB2065, Kleptocracy and the Forfeiture of Equity

Democrat Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza of Long Beach wrote "Sales and Use Tax" (AB 2065). A good Democrat, just doing what she needs to do to advance in the People’s Republic of California (PRC), Oropeza has on her Web site, ironically enough, the banner message "September 11, Day of Remembrance and Service."

The service Oropeza provided California property owners, signed into law by Davis, will indeed be remembered. According to the analysis on the legislative floor, the subject provision buried like a time bomb into AB2065 does the following:

"Requires income tax withholding at a rate of 3 1/3 percent from the proceeds of the sale of real property purchased from individuals who are California residents, effective starting January 1, 2003. Currently this withholding requirement applies only to real estate sales by nonresidents."

Procedurally, California escrow agents will provide notices of withholding requirements as well as instructions to be signed by the seller and the buyer, authorizing the remittance of the withheld amount to be sent to the Franchise Tax Board.

This classic Davisonian plunder differs from his usual modus, using the formula we’re all familiar with: Prison guards get a 34 percent raise, prison guards give Davis $250,000. Tosco dumps toxic chemicals in San Francisco Bay, gives Davis $73,000, problem goes away.

No, this one is outright theft. By the way, the withholding provision of AB2065 remains on the books in perpetuity; there is no sunset.

As described in "After Long Boom, Weaknesses Appear in Housing Market," (WSJ, Oct 3.):

"Lenders are beginning to tighten credit for some high risk borrowers, with mortgage delinquencies near their highest level in a decade and a record 1.23 percent of mortgages in the foreclosure process. Market observers say it’s only a matter of time before lenders pull back further."

Taking away over $10,000 from a $300,000 property transaction (cheap by California standards) and setting it aside for the bloodsuckers in Sacramento, is a recipe for disaster. The buyer needs the money to "trade up", and the seller loses equity. Both sides will be further delayed, and yet another layer of bureaucracy and work gets created for state employees.

'Ultra-tolerant' News Media Hide Behind Agenda Too

Don’t think the public’s unawareness of this subterfuge is the doing of Davis and the PRC alone. No, they get away with it because the media is too preoccupied with stories on "hate crimes," gun control and homophobia. This converges nicely with the Democrat party’s national mantra, a hypnotic, symbolic, sleepwalking dirge of:

GUN CONTROL, ABORTION, ENVIRONMENT, GAY RIGHTS

Getting sleepy yet? Let’s try it again, but change the verse:

ABORTION, ENVIRONMENT, GAY RIGHTS, GUN CONTROL

Ever heard a Democrat discuss where the money for all of their "progressive" programs comes from? How about companies losing jobs and moving overseas? Tax incentives to retain businesses intent on moving to more attractive environments in Nevada or Arizona?

It’s not in their vocabulary. They’re extremely skillful at hiding behind the mantra, and nobody makes them responsible for the economic consequences.

In fact, capitalism, the profit motive, markets, the exchange of goods and services, limits on state control and oppressive taxation are anathema to these leeches.

How is it humanly possible for anyone to vote Democrat? It’s suicide! But then Jim Jones made tasty Kool-Aid.

The thing about Democrats in California is that the truth is their worst enemy. Were the public aware of what has been hidden in the bill, these lying liberals would never get away with it. But the newspaper cabal, with three-fourths of their space devoted to advertising, have bigger things to worry about, and the extent of the latest piece of kleptomania coming out of Sacramento isn’t one of them.

So How Did They Bury the Provision?

Davis and the PRC know that the last remaining pillar of the state’s economy is the equity people have in their property. In fact, the Democrats tried earlier in the year to slip this one by in the puffy suitcase of Senate Bill 1849. But after strong objections to the withholding provisions, removed it from the budget negotiations.

The provision was then stealthy reintroduced as an amendment to AB2065, and the bill was sent to the governor WITHOUT formal public hearings.

And Davis signed it. Quietly (shhhhhhhhhhhh! Hush - hush). Nothing to see here.

Where One Is a Stranger in His Own Land

Californians feeling like an alien in their own land don’t have to look far from the legal relationship Davis and crafty lawyers have worked out.

Consider how this insidious tax was structured and its historical background.

According to the California Land Title Association (CLTA), the provisions of AB2065 are shaped after Cal-FIRPTA (Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act), which became effective in 1988, which was in turn patterned after the federal law first adopted in 1980.

Here’s the trick: Cal-FIRPTA, before AB2065, related ONLY to withholding of real estate proceeds of FOREIGN, NON-RESIDENT aliens. AB2065 amends that law to in effect apply these same rules to California property owners. So rules that once penalized foreigners and non-residents are now being used against residents.

The methodology makes sense. After all, this is the state that grants in-state college tuition rates to illegal aliens, but out-of-state rates to American citizens who don’t live in California. We are, as they say, Minority-Majority.

This is also a state that houses 7 million illegal aliens but refuses even to acknowledge the billions it costs tax-filing residents to provide services for people who don’t have legal status, and who don’t have to file state taxes.

What duplicitous people we have running government in California! What destructive, onerous, deceitful gangsters we have in this unopposed, single-party politburo who call themselves "lawmakers."

Grotesque, but Understandable, Sense of Timing

A nation in mourning on the anniversary of the most murderous attack in American history. Every TV station repeatedly airing tributes, footage, commentary. Talk radio devoting the entire day asking people how 9/11 changed their lives. Many of us took the time to reflect and say a prayer for those who lost family members, asking God to give them strength in their time of need. In many ways the anniversary brought out the best in people.

Well, not everyone. A day and a time where all are distracted tempts a thief. Nobody’s looking, nobody noticing. Like war, deception being a prime ingredient of victory. One man with overbearing authority over the lives of 38 million people saw 9/11, with all its focus on this singular, dreadful observance, as a grand opportunity.

Perhaps Gray Davis, a captain in the U.S. Army during Vietnam, said some encouraging words at a veterans gathering; he may have made a statement to Californians who lost family in the attacks. Heck, rumor has it a soul lurks somewhere in his bizarre world of robotic cash gathering and naked opportunism.

Nonetheless, on Sept. 11, 2002, he found the "under the radar" day of a lifetime to sign into law AB2065.

Shut Up and Give Me Your Cash!

The stories of Davis goon squads and lobbyists intimidating state officials into coughing up cash are legend. Get on the wrong side of the governor, give him less than cretinous Garry South thinks you can afford, or give him nothing, and watch out.

If this withholding provision was an honest extension of the governor’s authority, done to help salvage the state’s finances in conjunction with a comprehensive plan to restore fiscal order, he’d have made this incendiary increase public, explaining its impact, taking his lumps.

Instead, this malicious and spiteful gouging of California property owners was buried, hidden like an ugly troll. And you don’t know anything about it do you?

Well, if you sell a property other than your primary residence after Jan. 1, 2003, you will.

See next article in series: So You Want to Steal an Election?

You may e-mail Patrick Mallon at patrick@newsmax.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
California Governors Race

Editor's note:
Liberals' attacks on America – in their own words!