Interesting.....just when I'm about to give up on the collective balls of our "movement", I found this posted online:
To All Californians in the Fight Against Proposition 8:
Send the letter below to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Put the letter in a regular stamped envelope, address it to him, do not put your return address on it, and mail it off. (A generic phrase, such as "Angry Gay/Lesbian Citizen" in the upper left corner of the envelope would also suffice.) Send identical copies to Karen Bass (Speaker of the California Assembly), Darrell Steinberg (President pro Tem of the California Senate), and Ronald George (Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.)
This tactic will put the state on notice that tens of thousands of infuriated, disenfranchised gay and lesbian citizens will not pay tribute to a state that denies them equal rights. It will wreak havoc with state budget planners, who are already dealing with a financial crisis. It will devastate their ability to accurately predict state income, and enact a budget.
We do have influence over a state which continues to abuse us. We can withhold our monetary support, and push the state toward bankruptcy. Even a hundred thousand lesbians and gays can financially drive the state right into the ground.
If you want to reduce or eliminate paying state income taxes, it is easy to do. Simply instruct your employer's payroll department to increase the allowances for your pay checks to the highest allowable amount, which effectively reduces the amount of state tax being deducted each month. This is accomplished by filling out a new W-4 form for state withholdings, and writing in a higher number where it says "Withholding Allowances." Reduce the state taxes to zero, if you want. (Every additional allowance reduces what is deducted for state taxes by about $8.00 monthly. So, adding 10 more allowances on your W-4 reduces what is being deducted for state taxes by about $80.00 monthly.) No doubt, you will find other uses for that money! As far as the 2009 state income tax returns go: just don't file them.
Don't fear penalties for nonpayment. The state will never be able to pursue a hundred thousand gays and lesbians who anonymously are refusing to pay income taxes. And even if the state tries to penalize you? Aren't your rights worth fighting for?
The addresses are:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814
- Karen Bass State Capitol, Room 219 Sacramento, CA 95814
- Darrell Steinberg State Capitol, Room 205 Sacramento, CA 95814
- Chief Justice Ronald George Supreme Court of California 350 McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102
PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW IN THE LESBIAN/GAY COMMUNITY.
(The letter text is below. Do NOT email your letter to the four state leaders if you want to remain anonymous. Anonymity is part of the strategy.)
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Dear Arnold Schwarzenegger:
As a Californian, I am disgusted beyond description with Proposition 8. This despicable, immoral, and unconstitutional attempt by organized religion and personal bigotry to stop the forward progression of equal rights is without parallel in our state's history.
Your lack of leadership in this constitutional, state-wide crisis is lamentable and cowardly. Twice, you vetoed historic same-sex marriage legislation. You appointed a Republican to the State Supreme Court who has twice coldly voted to deny gays and lesbians their constitutional rights. You promised to vigorously oppose Proposition 8, but during the 2008 campaign you were missing-in-action on this most important civil rights issue. You were content to sit on the sidelines while your gay and lesbian citizens were being abused, attacked, and marginalized. Well, now you will deal with the fallout from it.
The passage of this outrageous piece of garbage effectively tells me that I have no citizenship in California, no stake in our government, and indeed, tells me I am invisible to the state and to the people. Very well. So be it. My first action as an invisible, non-citizen is to stop paying all state income taxes. I will, from this point on, not pay any state taxes. I will also refuse to file any state income tax returns.
This action on my part will remain in effect until the California Constitution is restored to its former proud splendor, and any vestige of discrimination is removed from it, for all time. In a word: once the constitutional birthright of marriage is once again enjoyed by all citizens, including same-sex couples, I will start to pay income taxes again.
Oh, by the way: the taxes I am not paying will not make their way back into state coffers retroactively. The dollars being withheld during this constitutional crisis are lost to the Treasury forever, and will not be paid back once the marriage rights have been restored to the gay and lesbian community. So, the longer this Prop. 8 travesty goes on, the more dollars the state will lose.
Six cowardly Republicans on the state Supreme Court have decided to side with religious bigotry and personal prejudice in the so-called "culture war" against gay and lesbian Californians. They have ignored their oath to uphold the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of California. Understandably, I have no desire to fund a government that has decided that persecution and abuse of gays and lesbians is permissible.
If your reaction is "tsk, tsk...withholding taxes is illegal", well, save your breath. If you ever bothered to pick up a history book, you would know that the Boston Tea Party was considered illegal, too. In fact, so was the entire Revolutionary War. The Declaration of Independence clearly states that when a government destroys individual rights, "it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it." I have no interest in abolishing this state's government, but by withholding tax funds I am quite capable of altering the state's discriminatory attitudes and laws against me. I would be stupid to financially support a state which has singled me out for abuse, harassment, and discrimination.
I am not signing this document with my name. Proposition 8 has made me invisible as a citizen. So be it. You and the Department of Finance will never know whether I am one of the thousands of deadbeats who, every year, regularly do not pay their state taxes....OR.... if I am one of the tens of thousands of outraged lesbian and gay citizens who refuse to pay tribute to a state which allows bigoted voters to deny them the full measure of rights guaranteed to The People under the Constitutions of the United States and the State of California.
If you thought you had budget problems before, well, you have not seen anything yet.
Deal with it.
Sincerely,
An Invisible, Non-Citizen of California
cc: Karen Bass (Assembly Speaker) Darrell Steinberg (Senate President pro Tem) Ronald George (Chief Justice - California Supreme Court)
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How's your state budget doing, Arnold?
August 12th, 2009 -
Perhaps this needs to be revised for Referendum 71.
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