East Bay legislators aim proposed tax increase at wealthiest corporations

Democratic East Bay lawmakers hope to address income inequality and fund education by increasing the tax rate by 2 percent on the top 0.2 percent of corporations that do business in California.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, as well as Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks of Oakland and Rob Bonta of Alameda appeared at a news conference in Oakland Monday morning announcing Senate Bill 37, titled “Corporate Fair Share for California and Californians.”

“Corporate profits are at an all-time high, yet the portion of tax revenue California receives from corporations is close to its lowest point in 40 years,” Skinner said. “SB 37 just asks corporations to pay their share, so we can cut income inequality and help fund our kids, our teachers, and our schools.”

Corporations in California are sitting on an additional $13 billion to $17 billion in tax revenue in recent years due to the 2017 Trump tax cut, which slashed corporate tax rates by 40 percent, according to a statement issued today by Skinner’s staff.

In order to capture part of that windfall, SB 37 would raise the tax rate to 10.84 percent from 8.84 percent on companies that net more than $10 million in revenue annually.

The bill would increase tax rates even more for large corporations based in California based on the disparity between executive pay and the pay rate of their average workers.