This is the third part of a four-part series highlighting 2010 races that will affect the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), the entity that oversees state tax policy and collections of more than $50 billion a year. Senator Tony Strickland is the Republican nominee for State Controller. The State Controller is the ex-officio member of the BOE, sits on the State Franchise Tax Board, CalPERS, CalSTRS and 72 other boards and commissions.
The State Controller is the chief financial officer for the state of California. His responsibilities include being the state’s accountant and having broad powers to investigate every dollar spent by the state, counties, and local governments, such as the current audit in the city of Bell.
The State Controller administers the state payroll system and is responsible for the unclaimed property system. He also has the authority to audit all California School Districts, the California State Lottery, all state agencies, numerous local governments, all regional development authorities, and oil and gas lease royalties.
The state of California is the only state to have two separate taxing agencies, the Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board. There have been legislative efforts to combine the agencies to save taxpayer dollars but those efforts have not been successful.
If Senator Strickland wins the office of State Controller, he will be the first Republican to hold the office since 1975. It will also be the first time the Board of Equalization is controlled by a conservative Republican majority in over 30 years. A Republican win will also hand them control over the state Franchise Tax Board, the state’s equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service.
The state Franchise Tax Board consists of three board members: the State Controller, the BOE chairman and the Governor’s Director of Finance. It oversees personal and corporate income tax collection, collecting more than $60 billion a year.
Senator Strickland began his political career by first serving as Chief of Staff to then-Assemblyman Tom McClintock from 1996 to 1997. In 1998 he was elected to the 37th Assembly District where he served until 2004.
During his three terms in the Assembly, Strickland became best known for filing suit against then-Governor Gray Davis on behalf of energy rate-payers. Davis was eventually forced to reveal the energy contracts the state had negotiated in secret between the state of California and energy companies. Those contracts became an important issue in the successful recall campaign launched against the governor.
Strickland was elected to the State Senate in 2008, once again replacing his former boss Tom McClintock. He states his top priority “has been to restore California’s economy,” and that he “believes the best way to preserve funding for vital programs like healthcare, education, and transportation is by creating jobs.” Strickland also is Vice President of GreenWave Energy Solutions LLC, “a company that seeks to harness the power of ocean waves to provide energy to Californians.
Strickland won his 2008 Senate seat at the same time his wife, Audra, won re-election to the Assembly. They are the second husband-wife team to serve concurrently in the Legislature. Senator George Runner, candidate for the second district of the BOE, and his wife, Sharon Runner, were the first. Audra will term limit out this year.
