In California, a Push for Tax Increases on the 2012 Ballot
For 33 years, since the passage of Proposition 13 slashed property taxes in this state, California has been on the leading edge of the tax cut movement that has spread across the nation.
But faced with the prospect of withering budget cuts and deficits that stretch through at least the middle of the decade, that may be about to change.
A near glut of initiatives that would raise taxes are being aimed at the November 2012 ballot. A group of Republican and Democratic business leaders and former state officials calling itself the Think Long Committee for California is drafting an initiative to raise $10 billion by expanding the sales tax to services, while reducing personal and corporate taxes. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and legislators are negotiating the details of an income tax surcharge on the state’s top earners and for a sales tax increase that in its latest form would raise $6 billion.
In addition, labor unions want voters to approve even bigger sales and income tax increases, and environmental groups last week proposed an initiative to close a business tax loophole that they said would produce $1.2 billion for education and energy projects.
There are so many plans out there that some Democrats are warning about tax initiative gridlock on the ballot.
It is highly unlikely that all these initiatives will qualify for the ballot, and Democrats say they are working to make sure that not all of them do. Not incidentally, California’s formidable network of antitax groups is not about to be caught off guard and is confident about beating back the efforts at the polls.