Taxation: qualified heavy equipment.

The California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to classify personal property for differential taxation or for exemption by means of a statute approved by a 23 vote of the membership of each house. This bill would, pursuant to this constitutional authorization, impose a tax on every qualified rentee, as defined, of qualified heavy equipment, as defined, for the privilege of renting qualified heavy equipment in this state at the rate of ____% of the gross receipts of the rental price from the renting of qualified heavy equipment. This bill would require a qualified renter to collect the tax from the qualified rentee at the time of rental, as provided. This bill would provide that this tax shall be in lieu of any personal property tax on qualified heavy equipment. This bill would require the tax to be administered by the State Board of Equalization and to be collected pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Fee Collection Procedures Law. This bill would require all revenues, interest, penalties, and other amounts, less refunds and the board's costs of administration, derived from the imposition of the tax to be deposited in the Heavy Equipment Revenue Fund in the State Treasury, established by this bill. This bill would require all revenues in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be used to reimburse local entities for their loss of property tax revenues resulting from this bill. This bill would allow the Director of Finance to authorize a loan from the General Fund to the board to meet cash needs resulting from the delay in receipt of revenues into the Heavy Equipment Revenue Fund, provided the loan is repaid from the Heavy Equipment Revenue Fund, as provided. By expanding the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code requires the Legislature to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy, but its operative date would depend on its effective date.