DEALER LETTERHEAD

Date

Honorable Johan Klehs
Chairman
Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0001


Dear Assembly Member Klehs,

AB 1644 is scheduled to be heard in the Revenue and Taxation Committee Monday, May 2, 2005. I am requesting you and all of the other members of the committee oppose this bill. I believe this bill is bad for California agriculture, rural communities, and for the entire State. Rural economics and the agricultural industry is fragile and will be hurt as the cost to agriculture for the products they need to produce the food and fiber for the state will increase dramatically. Today’s agricultural commodities are priced globally and costs are fixed locally. As almost all states in the United States do not tax farm machinery purchased by farmers, AB1644 will harm the California farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to be competitive to farmers in other and surrounding states that they compete against for their products.

If this bill passes, growers and producers of agricultural products will pay the highest taxes for the purchase of machinery and other agricultural products in the nation. That should not be the course our State chooses to follow.

Please oppose AB1644.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,


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Cc: Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee Members