COUNTYWIDE : La Follette Calls for Repeal of Tax on Snack Food

State Senate candidate Marian W. La Follette on Wednesday called for a constitutional amendment to repeal the state’s new “snack tax” on food, candy and bottled water.

Standing in front of the Oakdale Market in Thousand Oaks, La Follette announced that her tax-slashing proposal, called the “Necessities of Living Amendment,” would repeal the sales taxes placed on snacks by the legislature last year to help balance the state budget.

La Follette said the proposed amendment would also prohibit future taxes on food, medical supplies and utilities.

“The only way to begin curbing the monstrous appetite of government is to limit their ability to tax Californians into oblivion,” La Follette said. “This is one of the reasons why I have come back to public life to lead the charge on behalf of the taxpayers and the growth of business.”

La Follette, who served in the Assembly from 1980 to 1990, is competing with Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Fillmore City Councilman Roger Campbell in the June 2 Republican primary for the state’s 19th Senate District, which stretches from Oxnard into the San Fernando Valley. The winner will square off with Henry Phillip Starr, a Bell Canyon lawyer, in the general election in November.

To make up for lost snack tax revenue, La Follette proposed a five-year austerity program that would, among other things, freeze all government hiring and overhaul the budgeting review process for all state departments.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who has endorsed La Follette and appeared with her at the news conference, criticized Wright, La Follette’s chief opponent, for contributing to the tax burden by casting the deciding vote to raise vehicle registration fees an average of $60 per vehicle.

“Cathie Wright pledged no new taxes and she broke that pledge,” McClintock said. “What she said and what she did is entirely two different things.”

John Theiss, Wright’s campaign manager, said the assemblywoman had little choice but to support the increase in vehicle registration fees because of tight budget constraints. Theiss said Wright supported the fees because a portion would go directly to county mental health programs and because the fees were tax deductible.

“She felt it would be less painful because it could be a tax write-off,” Theiss said.