I wouldn’t vote to put the tax-hike extension measure on the ballot, period, no matter how many “conservative” things are added to the mix.
1. The state’s budget woes are caused by horrendous overspending, not undertaxation. Make massive cuts, particularly in the hundreds of boards and commissions. Eliminate many, and cut the personnel at truly necessary ones. (Why, for example, do we need over 25 Regents on the U.of California board instead of, say, 7?)
2. The tax hikes that Brown wants extended were SOLD IN THE FIRST PLACE as a super-temporary, JUST-THIS-ONCE fix. Extending them for five years will further undermine public confidence in “temporary” tax hikes — which may make it harder to pass the rare, TRULY necessary one someday.
I’m waiting for Moonbeam to lose it at the mic down the road... a ‘Jefferson Airship/Grateful Dead’ moment in the making in drab shades of gray..
Maybe it is fitting that one of those most responsible for the mentality that got us in this mess should be at the helm when it augers into the side of HalfDome..