Roberti Opposes Boost in Income Taxes

Senate leader David A. Roberti indicated Saturday that he would oppose increasing income taxes, even if a newly enacted tax reform law is found to be the cause of a surprise budget shortfall of as much as $1 billion.

In a radio speech, the Los Angeles Democrat pinned the blame on last October’s stock market crash, and charged that Deukmejian Administration tax officials failed to take it into account and make corrective adjustments.

Last week, state government officials reported that revenue flowing into state coffers will fall off by $800 million to $1 billion, although they said the causes were unclear.

Some speculated that the stock market collapse might be to blame. Others theorized that a supposedly “revenue neutral” state income tax conformity law enacted last year may be seriously flawed.

Gov. George Deukmejian called together executive branch and legislative tax experts to investigate the causes of the shortfall and to report back to him in two weeks with remedial recommendations. He suggested that if the new tax law is found at blame, he would support “adjustments”--possibly some tax increases, to get the statute in line.

Recent Praise for Fairness

But Roberti noted that the law, which sought to conform much of the California Tax Code to the 1986 federal tax overhaul, had recently been praised as the “fairest and most progressive” state income tax by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a labor union.

He warned that the $1-billion shortfall “error should not be corrected by taking fairness out of our tax system. . . . Even with the recent bad news, I do not intend to push for increased taxes.”

Roberti asserted that the stock market crash “fundamentally” changed the revenue situation in California.

“The Deukmejian tax experts thought that more profits would be taken in response to the stock market crash,” he said. “They were wrong. We lost $1 billion.”

Even so, he said, the Senate Budget and Revenue and Taxation committees will hold a special joint hearing on Wednesday to find out “precisely what happened and then propose some solutions.”