The Internal Revenue Service, the federal government's tax collecting agency, was on no one's lips Friday during the Solano Tea Party Patriot Tax Day Rally in Vacaville's Andrews Park.
 
But in their turns on the park's stage, beginning at 4 p.m. on a tree-covered hill overlooking the historic downtown, speakers mentioned the tax-related gripes that have been part of the populist political movement's general platform since the nationwide group was founded in 2009: the need for reduced government spending; opposition to taxes deemed unnecessary; reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit; and hewing to an originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

 
With a few American flags fluttering atop some tents, one emblazoned with the local group's website address, chapter president Angela Weinzinger and others started the three-hour event by leading the Pledge of Allegiance, saying a Christian prayer and singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

 
The rally, which in its early stages attracted 80 people on the lawn area, was held on the traditional "Tax Day," another reminder of the group's namesake, the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which occurred when colonists objected to British taxes on tea and expressed their ire by dumping the tea into the Boston Harbor.


Mike Hudson, vice mayor of Suisun City, alluded to the prospect of a "cuts-only" state budget being considered in Sacramento and said Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his party's faithful "will try to scare us" into believing such an austere financial outcome would ravage the state's ability to function.

 
He credited the state's Citizens Compensation Commission with eliminating legislators' taxpayer-funded vehicle privilege, which has been replaced with $300 monthly vehicle allowances, saving $2 million annually. Hudson also noted that taxpayers pay for some 200 state boards and commissions, suggesting that some could be eliminated or consolidated as a cost-saving measure.

 
He also touched on what he perceived as bloated teacher pensions and the need to sustain redevelopment money for use in local cities, rather than shifting it to the state's general fund, as Brown would like to do.

Redevelopment "transformed my city," in the last 20 years, said Hudson, adding that it created "a bigger tax base" and generated much-needed revenue.

 
"We're being taxed enough already," he said, adding, "We need jobs to get the economy going."

Hudson then shifted focus to the exodus of California companies to Texas, noting one Fairfield firm, Copart, has already relocated to the Lone Star State, which, some believe, has a more business-friendly, lower-corporate-taxes climate with fewer job-killing regulations.

 
Disabled Navy veteran Casey Nesbit, 64, of Suisun City urged listeners to support the U.S. military, to advocate for a strong national defense and to remember the religious roots of America's founding in the 1770s.

 
Velda Milani of Vacaville, who works in the financial department for the city of Fairfield, said Americans need to "stop fearing our government," to stay vigilant and remember the Constitution and God.

Fairfield City Councilwoman Catherine Moy asserted that Americans are "overregulated" and that governments should "mind their own business." She urged residents to closely monitor the activities and statements of local elected officials, from school boards to city councils, indicating the Tea Party is continuing to reshape the nation's political calculus.

 
Seated in a motorized wheelchair on the outer fringes of the rally, Vacaville native Robert Garrick, 51, a disabled Marine Corps veteran, held a sign that read, "We Are One, Respect Our Rights," a placard with the AFL-CIO union logo printed on the bottom. He said he attended the rally to remind people "that taxes paid for the road that got me here."


"But I'm mostly here because they (Tea Party Patriots) are nice enough to attend our rallies, so I figured I'd return the favor," said Garrick, a former Fairfield attorney.