Summary: FTB has increased its budget by $35 million a year for customer service staff — but it doesn’t appear they’ve hired any more staff and their customer service numbers are getting worse.
2023: FTB Admits Failures and Increased Budget
In March 2023, FTB admitted that penalties and fees were being falsely imposed as a result of customer service failures. They didn’t outright say this, but they also implied that wage garnishments, liens and levies were also being falsely imposed due to these customer service failures.
FTB requested a $25.23 million per year budget increase in order to correct these customer service issues. FTB had stated that they intended to hire more customer service agents and give raises and bonuses to the existing staff.
This was originally posted on January 4, 2025 and has been updated a few times. The most recent update was on May 5, 2025, where I uploaded more documents that I have yet to review. I’m hoping someone will beat me to it! On March 12, 2025 I also updated this post with more info on Golden State Opportunity Foundation.
Background
In 2022, as part of the SENATE BILL 154 – BUDGET ACT OF 2022, the legislature ordered FTB to spend $20,000,000 of FTB’s budget “for outreach to create increased awareness of, and participation in, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. These funds shall be allocated via contracts to nonprofit and community-based organizations. The participating nonprofit and community-based organizations shall particularly focus their outreach effortson persons who file tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) (page 9).”
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a tax credit that can be taken as a cash refund if the credit is more than the person’s tax liability. People who make less than $12,000 per year are not required to file a tax return; the EITC is a carrot to essentially pay them to file a return. ITINs are California’s equivalent to social security numbers that are issued to illegal immigrants (California is a sanctuary state).
Quick summary: I requested oaths on 100 people. It could be a mistake, but it looks like not one Assemblyman, State Senator or staffer filed oaths for the 2025 – 2026 legislative cycle. Lt. Governor Kounalakis also doesn’t have a current oath. I am asking you all for help to confirm whether or not oaths were filed.
For those that prefer video: here is an interview I did this morning. My segment starts at the 9-minute mark and goes to the 38:00 minute mark.
On January 31, 2025, I requested copies of oaths and bonds from the Secretary of State for 100 people, for many elected officials and deep state staff, including Scott Wiener: page 1, page 2 and page 3.
The SOS only takes payments via paper checks. I mailed a check right away, but it took a while to clear my bank. The SOS sent the response package via snail mail. The cover letter is dated February 10, but the package wasn’t mailed until February 19. I received it on Tuesday, March 4. Images of the cover letter are at the bottom of this post.
Interestingly enough, Scott Wiener and several others filed old oaths that were already expired. This indicates to me they are trying to cover their butts. However, the law clearly states that the oaths are to be filed within 30-days of taking office — to file an oath after it has already expired doesn’t change the fact that they were working unlawfully during that term.
Shockingly, it appears that of the 100 people that I requested oaths for, not a single oath has been filed for the 2025 – 2026 legislative term by State Senators, Assemblyman or their staffers. This could be an error. I sent an email to the SOS asking for confirmation that there are no current oaths filed. The SOS said it was possible there was a gap between the filing date and the SOS recording date. However, it is hard for me to believe that in the 4.5 weeks that had lapsed between the filing deadline and the SOS response, that all of them fell into that gap.
Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis also does not have a current oath on file. Since her oath was supposed to have to been filed in January 2022, she definitely did not fall into the gap. Prima fascia evidence indicates that the failure to file for this session is not an error:
1:30 – 6:00 Recap of my government corruption fight – how I went from fighting against the California Franchise Tax Board to end schemes to overcharge taxpayers to fighting against the State Senate to have Scott Wiener vacated from office for working unlawfully without an oath.
Uncensored Beat had me back at the end of November to give an update on the petition to void unlawfully implemented legislation. We also talked about how the word “equity” is deceptively utilized to justify taking away opportunities from most and making society less safe for all. In addition to how Wiener uses “equity” in his legislative work, we talked about how the CA Department of Education tried to use “equity” to limit kids access to algebra classes and remove calculus altogether (the parents pushed bak and stopped it from happening).
Here is the full update so far, as of the end of December:
— Before I served the petition, I discovered more State Senators working unlawfully without oaths: (scroll all the way down to almost the bottom of the oaths page):
The speech was limited to 5 minutes, so it was short and succinct. This is the text of the speech. The written submission is long and detailed, and includes links to proof of the allegations made.
Quick background: Every government employee is required to take an Oath and to have an insurance policy or bond. ORIM is the insurance agency for State of California employees. For those of you who are looking to file your own claims, here is info on how to do so. Before you order an oath, check to see if I already have it posted. If you would like some models to follow, here is the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth claims that I’ve filed. .
This is my seventh Claim to ORIM, which was filed on September 23, 2023.
I also filed the claim with the California Auditor’s Office. I’ve sent a lot of claims to the California Auditor’s Office over the years re: FTB’s accounting fraud schemes, but I’ve mostly given up on the Auditor because it appears they didn’t do anything to stop the schemes.
However, I’d tried to turn these executives in to CALPers for pension fraud (since they were working fraudulently, that means their pensions need to be voided), and CALPers told me that the Auditor’s office was the proper jurisdiction for pension fraud investigations. Hence the claim with the Auditor.
On December 6, 2023, the Franchise Tax Board had its Annual Taxpayer Bill of Rights Meeting. I’ll link the full video of the meeting and the transcripts when they are published.
Meanwhile, here is a video of the speech that I madeat the meeting:
The full 2+ hour board meeting is here. I speak from 1:42:26 to 1:47:38 (It was a looonnnggg meeting).
Here is the text of my speech. Since the speech was limited to 5-minutes, I had previously submitted more detailed written requests to FTB’s Board Members, Taxpayer Advocate and Executive Staff.
Seven of the twelve items are issues that I have addressed in the past: 1. The Taxpayer Rights Advocate should be addressing constitutional issues. 2. FTB to stop unlawfully imposing wage garnishments, levies and liens. 3. Disclose policies and procedures regarding the application of payments (3 specific items on this topic). 4. Stop unlawfully withholding credit elect payments from married couples. 5. Refer to taxpayers as constituents because we are FTB’s employers, not customers.
There were four new items, too. 1. I addressed the high number of executive staff that do not have oaths or bonds as required by law. 2. I requested that all statutes be reviewed to ensure that FTB’s policies and procedures follow the laws as written, with no words omitted or inserted. 3. I asked what data FTB procures from the low income people not required to file a tax return. 4. I asked why Bill Hilson made so much more money in 2022 than in previous years.
I also requested clarification of an item that I brought up last year: the “no payment” account that appears to be an off-the-books spending account. Last year, I had asked if the funds belonged to FTB or another agency (item #4). FTB had responded that the estimated tax payments are immediately turned over to the State Controller (SCO). I asked for clarification as to whether “no payments” go to the SCO or if they are only turned over once they are identified as an estimated tax payment.
Update: FTB Responded on February 1, 2023. The whole response is riddled with problems. I’ll try to write a rebuttal soon.
Note: I am not suicidal, I don’t have depression issues, I am a careful driver, I rarely drink alcohol, and I do not use drugs of any kind (not even aspirin). My family lives a wholesome life. If something happens to me or my family that is out of character for us, we were set up by the State of California as revenge for exposing their crimes.
Yesterday, Audra Morgan from Eye of the Storm interviewed me for her podcast. We talked about the various channels that I have tried in my fight against government corruption and what has/has not succeeded so far. Check it out! if you want more information on what we discussed, links are below:
