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ADELANTE STAFF ARTICLE
Previas Ediciones
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 John Chiang first joined
the State Board of Equalization in 1996 as former Board Member Brad
Sherman’s chief of staff, named acting Board member in 1997 and elected in
1998. Re-elected in 2002, John was unanimously elected Chair in December
2004. In addition, he is one of three members of the Franchise Tax Board,
and Chairs the Board of Governors for the Streamlined Sales Tax Project.
Conrado: What is the Board of Equalization?
John Chiang: The Board of Equalization is California’s elected tax
authority. We are responsible for the administration of over of 20
different tax and fee programs. We collected nearly $50 billion for the
various tax programs. Those monies are used to fund the social services
such as education, health care, transportation. The responsibilities are
enormous in how you value tax programs to finance the sixth largest
economy in the world.
On the income tax, there is about $1.5 billion in transactual taxes; sales
and use taxes the Board of Equalization is responsible for administrating.
Conrado: How is the role of the board different from the county tax
assessor?
John Chiang: The board of equalization is actually a property tax trust.
We write the rules that the local county tax assessors follow. We were
created to oversee the rules and regulations that apply to the assessors.
So if you had to dispute on a particular jurisdiction, we’ll set up an
interested parties meeting. We try to make sure we open up the process at
the Board of Equalization. We have a property taxes committee, a
legislative committee, business taxes committee where we receive public
participation. The public and private sector come together, discuss issues
and see if we have to formulate new rules or regulations.
Conrado: Which communities are included in your district?
John Chiang: I represent 73 cities in Los Angeles County. If you take Los
Angeles County and subtract Antelope County, the Santa Clarita Valley, 11%
of Long Beach, the peninsula cities and some area out of the San Gabriel
Valley, I represent most of Los Angeles County, now about 8.6 million
people.
Conrado: What is your role as the chairman?
John Chiang: I view it as an extraordinary leadership role. Some people
support taxes, some people are opposed to taxes. Whether you’re a Republic
or Democrat it’s fine to debate a lot of these measures. But among these
is the application of tax laws. I try to bring all my colleagues together
when we agree. One of things I started was a lot of taxpayer education and
services. We help those who are really in strong financial need to help
assist those individuals first.
I started religious seminars for various religious organizations. A lot of
religious institutions aren’t clear about their property tax obligations.
We’ve done 46 non-profit seminars throughout Los Angeles County. A lot of
non-profit organizations want to follow the tax laws, because they think
that just because they’re a non-profit, they don’t any taxing obligations
and that is not the case. If you are a non-profit organization, you have
the same taxing obligations, unless there is a statutory exemption that
says they don’t have to provide taxes.
I also started to work on the underground economy, where you have people
who do not pay taxes, whether through ignorance or potential evasion of
the law. I brought business and labor together to combat the underground
economy. Its purpose (is to recover) lost tax dollars. The discussion on
the income tax side is that we don’t collect about $6.5 billion each year.
A lot of what we are working on is looking at illegal, abusive tax
shelters.
Conrado: Tell us about your personal background.
John Chiang: I was born in New York, raised in suburban Chicago. In 1987 I
came to Los Angeles to attend law school.
Conrado: Why did you get into politics?
John Chiang: Early on I wanted to be a lawyer. My grandfather was an
attorney in Taiwan and I thought what he did was great. He helped people
and I just remember one summer people paid him with chickens. I thought oh
my god; he’s helping these poor people. That’s great, as child of seven.
Our family was the first Asian Pacific suburban Chicago in the community
that we lived in and we were discriminated against. So as I grew older and
I was moved by Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. I remember reading the
autobiography of Malcolm X. I saw that self-identity, who you are, you
have value, you can make a contribution. I became a civil rights lawyer.
But then I went to law school in the Reagan years and it became a bit of a
challenge.
Conrado: The majority of our readers are Gay Latino men. There are also a
number of non-Latinos who read Adelante. Why should they be interested in
the Board of Equalization?
John Chiang: On a couple of issues affecting personal finances. Taxes have
an extraordinary affect on people. If you are a renter or owner, the
property taxes; taxes on your food. There are implications if you (have) a
small business. There is a chance that you’re one of the millions of
businesses that may meet with the Board of Equalization. My office is
designed to provide the education so that people make the best financial
decisions possible.
If you are a member of the LGBT community, some of the issues that I work
on are property tax reassessment. The laws discriminated against you until
recently. For example, if you have a partner who passed away, because laws
do not allow you to legally marry, when your partner takes that property,
they have a step-up base or the property is reassessed. In California,
where houses have appreciated, you will pay significantly higher property
taxes.
Let’s say you and your partner own a house for $100,000 and 20 years later
it’s worth a million dollars, when your partner passes away, if you’re
married your spouse can take over and you don’t have a step-up base, no
reassessment triggered.
If you are not legally married, up until recently, (there is) a
reassessment of your property. So you will be paying 1% on a million
dollars instead of 1% on $100,000, plus 2% annual appreciation if it
increased 2% a year.
Conrado: Does that only apply if you have an official domestic partnership
recognized with the state?
John Chiang: Yes. There are two different rules. There’s one for domestic
partners and there is one that you can do to own on joint tenancy. You
have different options. We changed joint tenancy rules that assist
domestic partners. That was part of the challenge how to be drawn up so it
was legal. It doesn’t just apply to members of the LGBT community who are
domestic partners. It applies to senior citizens and others.
That’s why we did seminars. Because there are different circumstances for
different people. You can come into our seminars and talk to our lawyers.
We (also) get people from the private sector. They ask you a series
questions to see which device best applies to you. If you want to convey
it (the property) to your loved one…how do you want to convey it? Do you
want to do joint tenancy? Senator Carole Migden passed a bill that made it
a whole lot easier last year.
We’ve done about 5 or 6 of these seminars. We have a seminar in a couple
of months.
Conrado: The last one you did was with Bienestar Human Services and
Assemblymember Cindy Montanez?
John Chiang: Yes.
Conrado: What is your position on same-sex marriage?
John Chiang: I support gay marriage. People are entitled to love where
their hearts take them to. We’ve seen so much of the historical
discrimination. A few decades ago, they wouldn’t allow people to marry
outside of their race. The next challenge to recognize people’s own
individual rights.
Conrado: What have you done on this issue?
John Chiang: I’ve spoken out publicly. To try to find people the same
economic and financial rights. The next big challenge is recognize of
marriage in terms of income taxes. I’ve spoken out on that issue for a
couple of years. Carole Migden recently introduced a bill to have similar
treatment. The big hurdle is unfortunately the federal government has not
addressed this the way California has. Members of the LGBT community are
going to continue to struggle even if we pass it in California. We are
going to have different treatment at the federal level and the state
level.
Conrado: The LGBT Latino/a community formed the Latino Coalition for
Justice-LA to organize against an expected ballot measure to ban same-sex
marriage and to repeal domestic partnership laws. Will you endorse our
efforts?
John Chiang: Yes, it’s critical.
Conrado: What is your position on pending legislation in Washington on
immigration reform?
John Chiang: We need to have an honest discussion about this issue. I am a
Democrat so I look at things with a humanistic perspective. You can’t let
people live in poverty and unless people acknowledge that and start to try
to remedy that, we will continue to have people coming into the United
States. We have to try to develop people’s economic systems. People say
that it is not our job to help Mexico, Central America or Africa. If
you’re going to turn a blind eye to the world’s concerns, the world is so
interconnected now, it impacts all of us.
Part of it is how we use our best talents and our best remedies to try to
increase the standard of living throughout the world. And for those who
say, “Just kick them out!” It won’t stop unless you start to change the
human part of people.
People come to this country, we understand rules, but we also have to
(realize) that (immigrants) make enormous contributions (such as) their
contributions uncalculated for Social Security. Part of it is how to you
make the system work. Yes there are enormous costs in terms of educational
costs, health care costs, and social service costs. People who are coming
into this country are not just Latin Americans, they are Asian, Eastern
European, African and others throughout the world. They help our Social
Security system, even though not entirely balanced. So there are positives
and negatives.
Frankly we will always have a pool of unskilled labor. The tremendous
challenge is how we educate those and others so we can move people up the
economic and financial strata. I would rather have a larger pool of
educated people in California and in the United States so that we can
create the next person who is going to eliminate cancer, create the next
electronic vehicle or create the technology to help stop global warming.
This is a natural perspective about people and how they are valuable.
Conrado: What have actions have you taken on the impact of AIDS and HIV?
John Chiang: About ten years ago I was a pro-bono attorney to help
terminally ill AIDS patients. When I was growing up, we were discriminated
against, (I felt) painful exclusion. I volunteered to help people who were
abandoned by their families and their friends. I served on the board of
Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. I raised money for an organization
that gave money to other organizations that assisted families (whose
members) had AIDS.
I introduced a legislative proposal at the Board of Equalization to help
organizations that had thrift shops that provide assistance for
individuals with AIDS….in terms of sales tax that had to be remitted a few
years ago. It had a sunset clause, and I reintroduced it
Conrado: In June of this year, you won the Democratic nomination for the
California State Controller. What is the function of the State Controller?
John Chiang: the State Controller is the state’s chief financial officer
who’s responsible for audits, taxes and investment. The controller shares
the authority on investments and also shares the authority on taxes. It’s
the power of money. I want to use California’s money more effectively. If
you have this investment money (I will) look at creating affordable
housing, investing in companies that bring great return, but also do great
environmental things like electric cars, new technologies, more renewable
resources.
One of the great challenges is China and India is growing so fast that the
demand for oil is just increasing and by investing, hopefully here in
California, we also create jobs and the financial sector. Not just selling
products here in California but also the United States and across the
world. (This investment will) help us with our balance of trade payments,
lower our trade deficit. It has enormous financial benefits.
Conrado: In closing, what message do you have to a young person who may be
reading this and is struggling with his or her sexual identify?
John Chiang: You have value. You can make an extraordinary contribution
and follow your dream. Don’t let other people tell you who you are. |