(The Center Square) – Two Assembly members talked to The Center Square at the California Republican Convention about taxpayer issues and how they anticipate affordability, funding for a tough-on-crime measure and the proposed billionaires tax could play into the November election.
Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, spoke with The Center Square Saturday afternoon about his proposals to lower the cost of living, relieve California’s high tax burden, reduce gas prices and cut housing costs. He also discussed what he believes will be the most prominent issues that will come into play for the June 2 primary and the Nov. 3 general election.
“Affordability is one of the big issues in California and one of our big concerns,” Ta said during an interview in San Diego. “We’ve been focusing on that for the last four years. That’s an issue that everyone in California has concerns.”
Ta, along with his Republican colleagues in the California Legislature, believes the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. When asked what he would cut, the only change Ta named was a 1970 law that imposed statewide rules to reduce harmful environmental impacts from construction, building and urban planning.
“The issue for California is we keep spending money, and we don’t have a decent audit of the money we spend,” Ta said. “There are a few departments, there are a few agencies like CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] that have a lot of challenges and red tape that we need to focus.”
Ta also said he would have to look into what taxpayer-funded jobs he would eliminate if he were to propose cuts to state agencies.
According to a 2025 report from Tax Foundation, California has the third-highest tax burden in the country.
The report found California ranks 41 out of the 50 states for corporate income tax, 49th for individual income tax, 46th for sales tax and 27th for property tax. A similar study by WalletHub published in March says California has the nation’s 11th highest tax burden. The report says Hawaii has the highest burden; Alaska, the least.
“What a lot of people are really thinking about today, especially in the state of California, is you pay the highest taxes,” Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, told The Center Square on Saturday afternoon. “A lot of people have the highest incomes. A lot of people have the highest net worth here in the state of California. A lot of those people are leaving, and they’re leaving for a reason.”
Tangipa said he wants to lower gas prices by pausing the gas tax, a proposition put forward by two Republican lawmakers this year. Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez, R-Indio, authored Assembly Bill 1745, which aims to suspend the state’s 61.2 cents per gallon gas tax for one year. A similar bill authored by Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, failed in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee in a bill hearing in March.
Tangipa, a former Realtor, stressed the importance of bringing down housing prices in California. “What we need to do is make sure we’re increasing the amount of supply.”
He said that could be achieved by “getting rid of those rules and regulations, which create barriers and create scarcity.
“There are a lot of people who want to build more housing,” Tangipa told The Center Square. “We just need to get the government out of the way.”
CEQA-based lawsuits that prevent construction projects from going forward prevent the construction of more homes, Tangipa said.
“The biggest thing is about reforming the entire streamlining process,” Tangipa said. “Permitting reform is one of the best ways we can do it. I also believe that some of the impact fees are one of the worst things we put on developers. Developers have to pay for these large 30-year plans when it comes to impact fees, but yet, they’re not allowed to build housing all the way out 30 years.”
Tax credits could help reduce the challenges of building more homes, Tangipa said.
“What I’d like to do is provide tax credits for those impact fees, that if developers want to build massive plans and full residential facilities, they would be able to do so,” Tangipa said. “If they put in some of the most state-of-the-art infrastructure, they should be able to get a backfill and a credit for doing that kind of work.”
Ta, the Republican Assembly member from Westminster, said he has attempted to introduce legislation to lower the tax burden. In 2024, Ta introduced the Second Chance Act, which would have given a tax break to small businesses who hired ex-convicts. The bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee that year.
Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure that California voters passed in November 2024, has received what supporters say is inadequate or no funding since its passage, in large part because Gov. Gavin Newsom, who opposed the measure, hasn’t allocated money toward enforcing it. Strickland recently introduced a bill that would allocate $400 million to ensuring Prop. 36 is carried out.
“I strongly support funding going to Prop. 36,” Ta told The Center Square.
Ta also said he opposes the billionaires tax, which is backed by the Service Workers International Union – United Workers West. The one-time tax, if it passes in a ballot measure in November, would impose a 5% tax on certain assets owned by individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or more. Proponents said they want to use the revenues generated by the tax to help offset federal budget cuts to taxpayer-funded health care, food assistance programs and public education, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.
However, fiscal conservatives worry that billionaires will leave the state if the tax is passed.
“No more tax increases, no,” Ta said. “That’s so wrong. We have to protect our businesses.”
Ta didn’t put forward any ideas on how to fight the billionaires tax if it passes in November.
Tangipa’s Proposition 50 lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber was recently consolidated in a federal court with a similar lawsuit, Noyes vs. Newsom. The litigation is aimed to stop the newly-drawn congressional district maps from going into effect during the midterm election.
Proposition 50, which passed in November with overwhelming support, was California’s mid-decade redistricting effort to pick up five more Democratic seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after Texas did its own mid-decade redistricting, potentially picking up five more House seats for Republicans.
“I do believe the election will go on as its going to go on right now, but I also believe a lot of people need to pay attention to what the Supreme Court is going to do,” Tangipa said. “If they throw out the ability to racially gerrymander or racially draw lines in the United States, then they’re going to get rid of our ability on what they justified a lot of the Prop. 50 maps on, so there’s going to be another bite at the apple.”
