Southern California's recession-battered shoppers mostly seemed to shrug in resignation.
But Day One of forking over higher state sales taxes on everything from toothpicks to pickup trucks left many venting about the latest economic insult and plotting ways to punch back -- or dodge it.
Emerging from the Lakewood Home Depot with cans of spray paint, Richard Dearth said the tax hike of 1 penny per dollar of sales -- bringing Los Angeles County's rate to 9.25%, one of the highest in the nation -- was the last straw. He and his son, who own and maintain rental units, have decided to join a tax revolt organized by talk radio hosts.
"It's not a question of whether I can afford it," said Dearth, 72. "I paid it today. I didn't notice it."
But he is steamed that state politicians didn't ask the public for permission, even though they don't have to. "It seems with the lobbying going on in Sacramento, they can put together anything they want," he said.
The tax boost, approved by the Legislature and governor, is part of a package of higher government levies, spending cuts and borrowing proposals intended to close a gaping state budget hole. As of Wednesday, the state sales tax rose from 7.25% to 8.25%. But with added local taxes, the rate varies from 8.25% in many Ventura county cities to 9.25% in Los Angeles. California's highest combined rate is 10.25% in Pico Rivera and South Gate.
At a Lynwood auto parts store, customer Juan Diosdado said the state is making a mistake.
"If you're going to increase my taxes, I'm going to think a lot more before I spend," said Diosdado, 34, who was buying rear lights for a recently purchased truck. "How are we going to fix the economy if we don't spend?"
The tax hike was a particularly tender topic for plumbing contractor John Handy, 54, the lone customer at a Costa Mesa Honda dealership. He had just come from the long waits and bureaucratic maze of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
"If the state of California was a private enterprise, all these [DMV] people would be looking for jobs," he said. "And they're raising our taxes?"
Outside an Office Depot in downtown L.A., Maria Sepulveda tossed a ream of paper into the passenger seat of her truck and fumed about the tax increase -- along with another half-cent county sales tax hike for transit that will hit in July.
"With everything that's going on, with the situation we're in, they now want to make things more expensive?" she asked.
