Too many taxes? Then stop already

by John M. W. Moorlach

One has to appreciate Assemblyman Tom Harman’s tax day timing for his

recent comments on making it harder to raise taxes on Californians

(“Too many taxes, especially today,” April 15). April 15 is certainly

a great day to contemplate federal and state income taxes.

One should also contemplate the good assemblyman’s actions. To

talk “no taxes” is great, but the walk should support the talk.

It was only last year that the assemblyman coauthored Senate Bill

204. Later versions do not include his name, but he is still given

credit for the bill. This legislation would later become known as the

infamous “diaper bill.”

The bill concerned itself with “the recycling and diversion from

landfill disposal of personal care products.” The Legislative

Counsel’s Digest of this bill makes one snicker.

“The bill would define a ‘personal care product’ to mean a

disposable product composed of plastic and paper materials that is

worn by a person of any age for the purpose of capturing human

waste.”

“The bill would require every person who purchases a personal care

product from a retail seller to pay the seller a diversion and

recycling fee of $0.0025 per personal care product.”

“The bill would require the retail seller to charge the purchaser

the amount of the diversion and recycling fee at the time of sale and

to remit ... on a quarterly schedule the collected fees, for deposit

in the Personal Care Product Recycling Account.”

I am not making this up!

Current state law requires the recycling of plastic trash bags,

plastic packaging containers, waste tires, newsprint and other

specified materials. Harman wanted to add the recycling of disposable

diapers to the list, and make retailers file quarterly returns with a

state agency to remit the taxes charged to young parents. Government

bureaucracy and paper pushing at its finest.

Harman also supported an SUV tax, by voting for Assembly Bill

1058. SUVs are vehicles used by young parents to safely carry their

infant children.

One wonders if our good assemblyman could walk the anti-tax talk

before he claims some sense of purity on the topic. Apparently, he’s

trying to tax us coming and going. Fortunately, some of us know a

full diaper when we see one.

* JOHN M. W. MOORLACH is the Orange County Treasurer and Tax

Collector. To contribute to “Sounding Off” e-mail us at

hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714) 965-7174.