Taxes Jump in California Today

No, this one isn't an April Fool's joke. Sales tax rates went up a full percentage point today in California. The tax rate in Orange County went from 7.75% to 8.75%. However, that's nothing compared to what's going on in the L.A. suburb of Pico Rivera:

Bill Medrano is more attuned than most Pico Rivera residents to a series of sales tax increases that -- starting today -- will push the rate in his blue-collar suburb to nearly 11%, the highest in the state and one of the steepest in the nation.

And he's not happy.

"It's almost as if we're getting punished," the 32-year-old security firm assistant manager complained this week on a trip to one the town's large retail centers. "It all adds up: a penny here, a penny there. . . . It's a big deal because everything is going up."

No California community is facing a more abrupt reckoning with a wave of mid-recession sales tax increases than Medrano's bedroom community southeast of Los Angeles.

To avoid cuts in crime-fighting and other services, city voters last year agreed to impose a 1% local sales tax on top of Los Angeles County's 8.25% rate. A few months later, lawmakers piled on another 1% statewide to bail Sacramento out of its fiscal crisis. Both increases take effect today.

A half-cent boost in the countywide sales tax will kick in July 1, thanks to last fall's voter-approved transportation measure, Measure R.

In all, Pico Rivera sales taxes will have climbed from 8.25% to 10.75% in just three months -- a total tax increase of 30% that is still sinking in for many residents and businesses.

As I understand it the lowest sales tax rates in Southern California can now be found in Ventura and Bakersfield (8.25%). If you're planning to buy a big ticket item, go there.