Author: Joel Fox

One argument made to persuade Republicans to provide the votes to put the tax extensions contained in Governor Jerry Brown’s budget on the ballot is that legislators should not prevent the people from deciding if they want to raise their own taxes.

Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform, the creator of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge signed by all Republicans save two, has said that even voting to place a tax on the ballot is tantamount to breaking the anti-tax pledge.

Others counter that if constituents want to express themselves on the tax increases and extensions then the people’s representatives should not stand in their way.

Would that argument also apply to other long-term budget fixes like a spending cap or pension reform? Shouldn’t the voters have their say on those as well?

So, here’s a solution to end the gridlock: Put it all on the ballot.

In commemoration of the Martin Luther King holiday, below is printed King’s "I Have a Dream" address as delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association hosted a taxpayers’ summit yesterday in Sacramento and, along with other state and local taxpayer groups, presented a united front against the proposed tax increases and extensions in Governor Brown’s budget.

Anticipating a well-funded campaign by public sector unions in support of the tax increases, HJTA president Jon Coupal argued that a vocal and concentrated effort could still defeat the taxes. Pointing out that the last six tax increase measures on the state ballot were defeated, Coupal said supporters of the tax measures could outspend opponents by ten to one and still lose. Public employee unions are expected to contribute millions of dollars to pass the tax increases, if they qualify for the ballot.

Before there is an election campaign over taxes, the legislature must put the tax measures on the ballot. State Republican Party official and publisher of the FlashReport website, Jon Fleischman, indicated that his survey of the Republican legislators showed no support to move the tax measures forward. He noted that all Republican legislators who voted for the tax increase in 2009 were no longer in the Capitol.

With still more than two years left on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s term, the race to replace him is beginning to pick up. One indication is a dinner event I attended this week organized by well-known Los Angeles publicist, Michael Levine, founder of Levine Communications Office to introduce LA City Controller Wendy Greuel to an eclectic but interested followers of the local political scene.

The current controller and one time city councilwoman from the San Fernando Valley is considering a run for the mayor’s post and has been encouraged to run by many associates.

Greuel was peppered with questions throughout the evening on issues of city policy and politics from the movie producers, radio reporters, restaurant owner, chef, business executives, attorney and others who made up the twenty attendees.

Governor Jerry Brown has stated that he wants his tax extension proposals to be placed on a special election ballot by a bipartisan effort. However, Brown and others have hinted that if Republicans don’t go along there may be other ways to put the tax increases before the people with a simple majority vote.

In his column yesterday, the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters suggested two ways the majority vote method might be accomplished. One way would be to amend previously passed statutory initiatives. Loren Kaye has expounded on this possibility a number of times on this site.

The second approach would rely on the recently passed Proposition 25, which allows a budget to be passed with a majority vote along with permitting budget implementing legislation to be passed with a majority vote.

How much different is the Brown budget of yesterday from the Schwarzenegger budget in 2009, which raised temporary taxes and made big cuts? Yes, there is a plan for realignment. Yes, there is a move to undo redevelopment agencies. That’s Good. And, a proposal to do away with enterprise zones? Not so good.

But the two budgets are really not much different. Both contain deep spending cuts and so-called temporary taxes, but the big structural reforms on spending, taxes and pensions are missing.

The central issue of the Brown budget, like the Schwarzenegger budget, is taxes. Despite the $12.5 billion in cuts announced by Governor Brown, taxes were the key to the governor’s budget presentation. Questions about taxes dominated the governor’s briefing. Taxes appeared in nearly every early headline above news reports on the budget. While many Californians are directly affected by the budget cuts, every Californian is directly affected by the tax increases.

Reportedly, Governor Jerry Brown will propose a budget today that includes severe spending cuts and a proposal to extend temporary tax increases. But the trade off of spending cuts for tax increases is not enough. Restructuring the way we operate government should be part of the package.

As of this writing, I don’t know how long a period Brown wants the taxes extended. Another two years? More? Or is the idea to make them permanent? However, the life expectancy of the spending cuts could be very short. Proposition 25 passed by voters in November allows a majority vote to pass the budget. That means, once the tax increases are in place, for whatever length of time, the spending side of the budget can be altered by a majority vote by the Democrats next year.

Democrats are not happy with the budget cuts and could and probably would alter them as soon as possible.

Republican legislators will balk at such a scenario and won’t accept a deal of tax extension for deep spending cuts.

The renewed discussion about Proposition 13 this week prompted by Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to realign state and local government responsibilities should put the focus on another key issue: public employee pensions and health benefits.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that property taxes are rising all around the country with public officials blaming the need to met pensions and health care costs.

Philadelphia raised property taxes nearly 10-percent. A spokesman for the Illinois Municipal League said while property taxes have increased in recent years to keep up with pension and health care costs, the increases this year have been much larger. Don Boyd, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York told the Journal, “Unless governments really want to squeeze essential services…there are likely to be a lot more property tax increases.”

Calbuzz noted at
the end of a well-deserved thumbs-up self-review of the lively Dr. Hackenflack/Calbuzz dinner inauguration night: "Worried Democrats meanwhile kept an anxious
eye on Brown, lest he keel over and make incumbent Lite Gov Abel Maldonado a
full-term governor before Newsom takes the oath of office."

Lt. Governor-elect Gavin Newsom is hanging onto to his position as mayor of San
Francisco until at least this weekend to "wrap up some business." Apparently,
the key business is to hang on to the mayor’s job long enough so that a more
friendly (to Newsom’s thinking) Board of Supervisors gets sworn in so that the
mayor’s temporary successor is more to Newsom’s liking than he may get from the
sitting Board.

By his action, however, Newsom could be setting up a constitutional crisis
and/or allow for Republican Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado to be a four year
governor if something, God forbid, happens to the new governor in the next
couple of days.