Early salvos fired in California tax fight

◼ Gov. Jerry Brown released an Internet ad the other day, asking voters to embrace his multi-billion-dollar tax increase.

But the word "tax" is nowhere to be found. The closest Brown or other speakers in the tightly scripted ad come to the T-word is "new revenues."

Mostly, it touts Brown's efforts to cut state spending and declares -- wrongly -- that the state's credit rating has improved.

"We've made progress, but we still have very serious budget problems in California," Brown says in the ad. "We simply have to take a stand against further budget cuts for schools or for our public safety. To do that, we're going to the people."

Opponents of Proposition 30, which would raise sales taxes slightly on everyone, and income taxes sharply on high-income Californians, don't shy away from "tax."

"Sacramento politicians have turned their backs on education and public safety and voted to waste billions on the largest boondoggle in American history," Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, says in its new anti-Proposition 30 radio spot. "These same politicians are using scare tactics to force tax increases on the working people of California. While they push for more taxes, frivolous spending and political cronyism, they ignore desperately needed reforms to education, pensions and spending."

These two bits of propaganda frame what promises to be a slam-bang campaign over the next three months, one whose outcome will affect the state's finances and politics for years.

◼ November Ballots Full of Tax Measures - Joel Fox/Fox&Hounds

While Governor Brown was in Las Vegas trying to gin up support for his November tax measure at the California School Employees Association conference — whose leaders must have chosen Las Vegas as the conference site to help with Nevada’s unemployment rate because it is one of the few states with a worse unemployment than California – local governments are starting to pile taxes on to the November ballot.
How taxpayers will react facing a ballot full of taxes for both state and local government is not certain, but warning flags are being hoisted from the government parapets that voters just might object when faced with so many tax measures....

November’s statewide ballot will contain three tax increase measures (the governor and legislature’s Prop 30 on sales and income taxes; Prop 38 income tax for schools; Prop 39 corporate taxes for energy projects and the general fund). How many local taxes will appear on the ballot is not certain yet since not all local governments have made final ballot determinations. However, with the threat of bankruptcies facing a number of municipalities, indications are the number of tax and bond measures will be high.

There are discussions to add sales taxes, utility taxes, parcel taxes, and even taxes on sugary drinks in the Northern California city of Richmond and the Southern California city of El Monte.