Why Apple Inc. Remains Popular in California
California’s most valuable company – Apple Inc. – has been taking flak lately from the halls of Congress to the capitals of Europe over reports that the consumer electronics giant manages its business to minimize the corporate income taxes it pays to the U.S. and foreign governments. But you’re not likely to hear too many […]
Train to Nowhere or Cutting Edge Vision?
Depending on your point of view, California’s plan for high-speed rail might be either a $69 billion fast train to nowhere or a visionary project that will keep the Golden State on the cutting edge of environmental protection and transportation technology. The voters have weighed in once in favor of the idea, and the Legislature […]
California is Richest, Poorest State
It’s fair to say that California is the richest state in the nation. We have more millionaires than any other state, and mansions dot our coastal bluffs and inland canyons. But California is also, arguably, the poorest state in the nation. We have more people in poverty — 6.1 million — and more children in […]
How will Brown Balance Oil, Environmental Interests?
California’s economy has been powered for decades by technology, trade and tourism — businesses and jobs mostly near the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles and around the San Francisco Bay Area. The state’s great inland valleys, while serving as a breadbasket for the world, have not been a land of high-paying employment or […]
Revenue Roller Coaster on the Way Up Again
California’s notorious tax-revenue roller coaster is on the way up again. How many times do we need to see this movie before we remember how it ends? Tax receipts in January soared nearly $5 billion above the projections Gov. Jerry Brown’s best experts made just a month earlier. Withholding from paychecks was 12 percent above […]
California Voters Declaring their Independence
Crossposted on Healthy Cal It’s conventional wisdom in political circles that California, like the rest of the country, has become more polarized in recent years. Just watch any election campaign or session of the Legislature and it seems clear that we are a hopelessly divided people. But is that really true? It might not be. […]
Budget game theory
As the calendar moves toward the Legislature’s June 15 deadline for passing a budget and the June 30 expiration of billions of dollars in temporary taxes, pressure is building on Democrats to cut a deal with Republicans, on mostly Republican terms.
Republican leaders have already said they would go along with calling a special election on the taxes if Democrats will accept a series of reform the GOP lawmakers are pushing.
If a handful of Republicans will also vote to extend the taxes from July 1 until Election Day, they will be able to extract maximum concessions from the Democrats.
But if June 30 comes and goes and there is still no deal, much of that Republican leverage will disappear.
Poll suggests local focus may be Brown’s best hope
A new independent poll released Wednesday suggests that a scaled back plan to increase taxes and dedicate all of the money to local government might be Gov. Jerry Brown’s best hope of finding new revenue to help balance the budget.
The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California finds that likely voters overwhelmingly want local government officials to have more say in how state money is spent in their communities.
The poll also shows that of all the major services, prisons are the ones voters least want to protect with their pocketbooks.
Finally, voters think they should be asked to weigh in on the tax plan, although many of those who want to vote apparently want to vote against it.
But the secret to overcoming that opposition might be to play on the voters’ preference for keeping government close to home.
Will Supreme Court ruling help Brown’s tax plan
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ordering California to reduce its prison population by 30,000 over the next two years has sent shockwaves through the Capitol as legislators and the Brown Administration struggle with how the state will comply.
Some are hoping that the ruling, and the attention it is getting, will give new momentum to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to extend about $11 billion in temporary tax increases that are expiring this year. Brown wants to use some of that money to reimburse counties for taking control of inmates who have short sentences or have been returned to prison for violating the conditions of their parole.
Voters, the thinking goes, will be more likely to approve the tax hikes if they think one of the consequences of not doing so will be the release of dangerous felons to the streets.
Setting aside the question of whether such releases really need to happen, is this really an issue that can drive voter sentiment?
Maybe. But it depends on how it is framed.
If Republicans wouldn’t vote for an election on taxes, why would they vote for the taxes themselves?
The revised budget Gov. Jerry Brown released Monday does not
seem any more likely to win Republican votes than the governor’s original plan.
Brown is still pushing to extend billions of dollars in
expiring taxes, except now he wants the Legislature to vote directly on the
taxes rather than simply scheduling an election.
The election would come later, and voters would be asked to
ratify the Legislature’s decision.
But if Republicans wouldn’t vote for an election on taxes,
why would they vote for the taxes themselves?
That’s a tough sell for Brown. Making it even tougher,
ironically, is the $6.6 billion increase in the state’s revenue projection for
this year and next.