By Michael Brewer – Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

AB-46 would provide personal income tax exclusions for retired military and survivor spouse benefits.

This bill unanimously passed the Assembly and was sent to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee as well as the Committee on Military and Veteran Affairs.

California remains the sole state that taxes military retirement benefits, contributing to the exodus from the state.

There are 146,000 military retirees in the state, 73 percent of whom are in the enlisted ranks. Much of this cohort group are part of a highly skilled workforce that the State of California would sorely miss.

More about this later, after the Senate debates the issue and it is scored by the Budget Office.