Seeking a bailout from its poor financial decisions, some in Sacramento have proposed a new tax on hard-working Californians who get their cars fixed at local repair shops to address California’s estimated $11.2 billion budget deficit. The repair tax would extend the current state sales tax of 5 percent to appliance, furniture and vehicle repair. If another proposal is approved to raise the sales tax by 1.5 percent, the new tax would be 6.5 percent. Republicans said the new tax would hurt working families with higher prices and higher taxes for what are already costly repair bills. They said that the repair tax could devastate local repair shops, many of which are small businesses. They said Californians should not have to pay more for auto repairs because lawmakers can’t get their spending under control.

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