Republican Ads Assail Davis on Sales Tax Increase

The California Republican Party began airing radio ads Thursday that accuse Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of leaving the political equivalent of a lump of coal in taxpayers’ stockings this Christmas season by signing a state budget that triggers a quarter-cent sales tax increase Jan. 1.

The 60-second ads, which will air until New Year’s Day in most California markets outside of San Diego and San Francisco, feature two of Santa’s elves discussing a belated Christmas present the bearded one must deliver to the state’s residents. The undesirable gift is a $1.2-billion tax increase courtesy of Davis, who formalized the higher tax when he signed the last state budget.

“So now he wants Santa to take the heat?” one elf asks.

“Would you want your name on that?” the other responds.

The ads--the opening salvo in what is expected to be a bruising gubernatorial election season next year--highlight an issue that Republicans have been hammering Davis with for months. The $50,000 to $75,000 ad buy is targeted to particular regions where Republicans believe that the tax issue will be effective in next year’s campaigns.

Under a formula approved by former GOP Gov. Pete Wilson, the sales tax is supposed to go down when the state accumulates a certain level of surplus revenue, and back up when it does not. The state reached the surplus levels last year, and Davis quickly announced a cut in the tax with much fanfare.

But as the economy began to slip, Democrats, who control the governor’s office and the Legislature, passed a state budget that did not maintain the surplus levels, thereby triggering the tax increase. Republicans accused the ruling party of spending too much and argued that the resulting tax increase could have been avoided.

Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar, who crashed the unveiling of the ad at Republican Party headquarters across from the Capitol, said afterward that the ad failed to accurately explain the GOP-approved formula that causes the tax to rise and fall. He defended Davis’ approval of a budget that raised it and said Republicans had not suggested what government programs they would have cut to keep the tax down amid sagging state revenues.

“They have no substantive solutions of their own to offer, so they come up with tired, shopworn rhetoric,” Salazar said. He added that in coming weeks the Davis campaign will unveil its own ads highlighting the governor’s record.