According to the California Tax Foundation, since the beginning of this year Sacramento lawmakers have introduced more than 90 bills that would cost taxpayers more than $370 billion annually in higher taxes and fees. Now these lawmakers want to add another tax but this time on your drinking water. Will there be anything that is not taxed in California?

Winston Churchill once said, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” And I agree, continuously taxing Californians is not the answer.

When SB623 was presented in the Environmental Safety and Toxics Material Committee, I wanted to support it. It was a feel-good bill that was trying to find a solution for getting more clean drinking water in California and it didn’t have any burdensome tax language. It was my hope that the bill would improve once it left the Appropriations Committee. But in the end, I was wrong. The solution they came up with was to add more than one tax to help fund the program.