Assembly Joint Resolution
No. 22
CHAPTER 89
Relative to social security.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 13, 1995.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 22, Morrissey.
Social security.
This measure would memorialize the Congress and the President to enact legislation that would increase prescribed income limits before subjecting social security benefits to federal income tax, and that would index those income limits to inflation.
Digest Key
WHEREAS, Social security laws, with respect to the taxing of social security as income at the federal level, have not been changed since the additional law was passed in 1983; and
WHEREAS, Social security is still taxable if personal income is more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) if single, or thirty-two thousand dollars ($32,000) if married; and
WHEREAS, During that period of time, inflation has increased more than 35 percent, with no change in the limits of taxable income; and
WHEREAS, On top of the initial tier of social security taxes, a federal law that imposes an additional higher social security tax was recently enacted whereby, under specified conditions, in the case of a single person earning thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000) and a married couple earning forty-four thousand dollars ($44,000), 85 percent of social security benefits are added to taxable income without an upward shift in the first tier threshold of taxable income; and
WHEREAS, Senior income increases at a very low percentage but the amount of social security that is taxed is increasing each year; and
WHEREAS, The people who are affected by this inflation are the people who can least afford it; and
WHEREAS, Those income limits, which include both social security and any tax-free income, no longer represent a fair amount of earnings to warrant tax on social security; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California respectfully memorializes the Congress and the President to enact appropriate legislation which would provide that the two tier taxation of social security benefits be eliminated by allowing a single person to earn thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000) and a married couple to earn forty-four thousand dollars ($44,000) before any portion of their social security income is taxed, and that those income limits be indexed to inflation; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Chairpersons of the House and Senate Committees on Aging, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.