CALIFORNIA'S NEWSPAPER TAX STILL IN PLACE

By: Joel Davis Other 'Temporary' Taxes Were Repealed



Despite a hefty budget surplus, California seems to be no closer to making the elimination of
its newspaper tax a reality.



The tax, which costs California newspapers about $40 million annually, was enacted in 1991
when California was in a fiscal crisis. Although other 'temporary taxes' also enacted that
year have since been repealed on everything from candy to bottled water, the newspaper tax
remains.



A repeal bill backed by the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) and introduced
in 1997 breezed through the state Assembly, but has gone nowhere since. It cannot get past the

Senate, whose leadership is said to be opposed to eliminating the tax, which affects 144
California newspapers. Beyond the Senate, Gov. Gray Davis has shown little sympathy for the
bill.



'We haven't attempted to move [the bill] because we didn't think it was fruitful to do so under
the current Senate leadership, which is opposed to it,' said CNPA General Counsel Tom Newton.
Newton said proposals have been made to pare the bill down so that it eliminates the tax only
on smaller newspapers, which would be less costly to the state. 'If we could do that, that would
be a good start,' he said.



Senate President Pro Tem John Burton has long been seen as the key lawmaker opposed to the CNPA
bill. A Burton spokesman said the senator is inundated with 'hundreds of [tax-elimination]
proposals involving hundreds of millions of dollars' and he is 'concerned on their impact on
the revenue stream.'