Yacht Party Follies

Judy Lin at the SacBee took a look at the Yacht Party's bankrupt arguments about how we simply have to enable tax evasion or poor people are going to starve.

"The immigrant who sprays fiberglass on a boat will lose his job. The small-business owner who installs avionics on an airplane will lose his business," state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth of Temecula told GOP members during a Feb. 15 floor debate. "Those are the people who are going to be affected by this. It's not the rich."

You know, never does a day go by that the Yacht Party doesn't show its deep respect and concern for immigrants. Somehow, though, I have the sneaking suspicion that they're being, what do I call it, completely disingenuous. The Legislative Analyst has correctly described this as tax evasion, the Governor has correctly described this as tax evasion, even the TAX EVADERS have correctly described this as legalized tax evasion.

Chuck Lenert, 57, of Sacramento saved nearly $30,000 in taxes when he bought a used 58-foot Kha Shing motorboat near Victoria, Canada, three years ago. It came with a docking slip in Canada, he said, so it was cheaper to leave it there and pay an attorney $2,500 to ensure his tax status was in order with the state.

"I was just following the rules of the state of California, so why should I pay sales tax?" Lenert said. "I wasn't trying to do anything but follow the law."

For a year, Lenert, who sells hardware for a living, would travel every few weeks with his family and friends and take the $376,000 vessel, named Knots and Bolts, around the waters off Vancouver Island to catch crabs, salmon, oysters and shrimp. After a year, he moved the boat to Washington state.

"I would say that the 90-day guys are more cheaters," said Lenert, who has since brought the boat down to Sacramento. "I had a bona fide use."

Not that it should even be a question, but contrary to the Yacht Party's protestations, actually making yacht owners pay their sales tax would have no material effect on sales whatsoever.

The analyst's report found that a longer exemption period had little impact on manufacturers and sellers because their products sell nationwide.

Tim DeMartini, owner of DeMartini RV in Grass Valley, said the length of the exemption doesn't affect his business because two-thirds of his orders come from outside California. The average 40-foot big diesel, he said, sells for $150,000.

"It won't make that much difference to us," DeMartini said, adding that the impact might be greater for the buyer.

Due to this "conflicting" information, Yacht Party members are just so gosh darn confused about the issue that they'd rather just walk away from it, which has the added benefit of, you know, saving Commodore Ackerman's yacht tax.

"I haven't been able to conclude which argument makes the most sense," said Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, who abstained from the vote.

As for Dan Walters' predictable media "he said, she said" argument, I think there's a slight difference between yacht owners avoiding sales tax and income tax credits for children for working-class families. Call me nuts.