Last week, the California Assembly voted to offer what they call a “Workers Tax Fairness Credit” that will grant tax credits funded by state taxpayers to any union member who paid dues for political purposes.
Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, one of the largest grassroots taxpayer advocacy organizations in the state, says that the new tax credit is a “corrupt” way to fund political campaigns using taxpayer funds.
“It is bad enough that the powerful labor unions in California are able to take money out of their members’ paychecks to fund political contributions to Democrat politicians - but now taxpayers are on the hook to pay to offset that cost to union members,” DeMaio notes.
DeMaio says the entire tax credit scheme is a “backdoor” way to implement a Taxpayer Funded Campaign program in California to benefit Democrat politicians. DeMaio, who opposes the entire concept of the program, says the program may be unconstitutional by favoring one political party over another.
“If you analyze the campaign contributions to major Democrat campaigns and politicians in California, they’re largely funded by unions — and far more than Republicans are,” DeMaio explained.
DeMaio points to a recent study by the Transparency Foundation, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to shining a light on government corruption. The study analyzed campaign funding sources in California and found that Democrat campaigns took in roughly $43.4 million or 619% more special interest funding (contributions from businesses, political action committees (PACs), and unions) than Republican campaigns.
You can read the full study HERE