In an op-ed that appears today in the Sacramento Bee, CBP Executive Director Jean Ross urges legislators to repeal corporate tax cuts that were slipped into two recent budget agreements, without public hearings. Legislators should repeal not just some of them, but all of them.

The Budget Conference Committee has approved rolling back the credit sharing tax cut and a portion of the expansion of net operating loss deductions. But this still leaves the largest and most costly of the tax breaks, the elective single sales factor apportionment, in place. Supporters argue that this tax change creates jobs. But a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities refutes these claims.

Jean writes of these tax cuts, “Slipped last-minute into budget deals with no public hearings, these significant changes to state policy will benefit a tiny handful of large corporations. With Governor Schwarzenegger proposing to close state parks, eliminate health coverage for more than a million children and severely cut education – indeed, as lawmakers consider sacrificing services to children to balance the budget – these tax cuts represent misguided priorities, and carry a price tag California can’t afford.”