• Home
  • About Us
    • JoinCalifornia
    • Use as a Reference
  • California 175
    • 1849-1850 Events
    • Events Calendar
  • Political History
    • 2021 Senate to Assembly District Table
    • Covering the Capitol
    • Scott Lay’s Sofa Degree
    • Legislative Committee Reports
    • Legislative Staff
    • Term Limits in California
    • Notable No Votes
    • Redistricting
  • Nelson S. Dilworth Collection
    • California’s Military History
  • Leroy F. Greene Collection

One Voter Project

The Online Home of California's Political History

July 30, 2012 By Alex Vassar Leave a Comment

The California Fire Fee Approaches

After working on a recent project relating the new SRA Fire Fee, I wanted to take a quick look at the issue of fees and taxes in modern-day California.

While the vote for ABX1 29 in the Assembly split along party lines (Ayes 52, Noes 26), two Democrats in the Senate sided with the Republicans who opposed the measure (Ayes  23, Noes  16). In both cases, the measure received several more votes than were required, but still fell well short of meeting the two-thirds thresh-hold for new taxes.

So Why is That Important?

Since the passage of Proposition 26 in 2010, bills that increased taxes in California have required the approval of 2/3 of the membership of both houses of the legislature. Let’s take a quick side-step and look at the differences between fees and taxes;

  • Fees are charged in exchange for a service. This means that fee payers should see a direct benefit from the money they pay (the link between paying and the benefit is called a “nexus”).
  • Taxes are more general and can be spend on a wider range of goods and services; the person paying a tax has no real expectation of seeing a direct benefit from the taxes they pay (so state taxes collected in Yolo County can be used to incarcerate inmates from Los Angeles County at Corcoran State Prison (in Kings County).
  • The Nexus, as the link between the payment and receipt of a benefit, is usually described as either Strong (meaning that you get to see exactly what the fee paid for, like a new Drivers License) or Weak (meaning that there is reasonable doubt that the fee-payer is actually going to see any benefit for their money.

So, the passage of Proposition 26 (combined with Republican hesitation to approve tax increases) created a huge new incentive for Democrats in the Legislature to construct their “revenue-generating” bills as fees rather than as taxes.

So this brings us gradually back to the SRA Fire Fee. A number of bills were introduced in 2011 that Republican legislators felt were taxes (due to a weak nexus), but were tagged by Legislative Counsel as fee increases. Generally, the Republican doubts were ignored, and the bills passed with a simple majority and implemented.

What makes the SRA Fire Fee interesting is that it (for a number of reasons) is likely to become the test case that will be used in the future as the criteria for determining if a measure is a fee or tax increase.

Stay tuned, I promise this is going to get very interesting in the next few months.

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Current Research, State Assembly, State Senate, Top Stories

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent News

New 2025 “California Lawmaker” Released

December 14, 2024

The new edition of "California Lawmaker" by JoinCalifornia.com editor Alex … [Read More...]

Legislative Retirement

December 8, 2024

In December 2024, Assemblyman Corey Jackson introduced legislation (ACA 2 of … [Read More...]

Adding Candidates

March 7, 2024

When to add candidates to the election data is always an interesting question. … [Read More...]

First Women to Chair Legislative Committees

January 25, 2024

I was recently asked who the first woman to chair a committee was. As it turns … [Read More...]

What Happened in the 2022 Election

November 13, 2022

[Updated 12/12] That was interesting. An election season that roared by in … [Read More...]

Latest Tweets

  • Just now
  • More Tweets by Alex Vassar

Fun Fact

Q: Who was the last Assembly Speaker to later be elected to the State Senate? A: Before Bob Hertzberg (serving since 2014), it was Frank F. Merriam (Speaker in 1923-1926), who was elected to the State Senate in 1928 and went on to be Governor in 1934.

California Lawmaker 2021

Now Available on Amazon

Recent Posts

  • Legislator Hometowns December 19, 2024
  • New 2025 “California Lawmaker” Released December 14, 2024
  • Legislative Retirement December 8, 2024
  • Adding Candidates March 7, 2024

Copyright © 2025 · Education Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in