Jerry Brown changes his tax plan to address concerns of liberal allies

Sacramento Bee ^ | 3/15/12 | Kevin Yamamura

[SmithL]

After a months-long feud with his most liberal allies, Gov. Jerry Brown compromised Wednesday to eliminate a rival tax initiative for the November ballot.

The new proposal Brown forged with the California Federation of Teachers and left-leaning activists would rely more on taxing the rich to raise an estimated $9 billion for California's budget.

The Democratic governor tried with little success to knock CFT's rival tax on millionaires off the November ballot. With a negotiating window closing fast because of the election calendar, state leaders and the teachers group struck an eleventh-hour deal to put their unified plan before voters.

"We were headed for a real collision course," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "If this were a game, this would all be pretty interesting, the machinations. But this is not a game."

The new initiative involves a smaller sales tax hike and larger tax increase on the wealthy than Brown wanted. CFT had been circulating a popular initiative with no sales tax hike and a two-step increase on earners starting at $1 million per household.

Brown's Department of Finance estimates the new plan would raise $2 billion more through June 2013 than the governor's original initiative, though Finance takes a rosier view of state revenue than the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

[SmithL]

Birds gotta fly,

fish gotta swim, and

Rats gotta tax!

[EGPWS]

"We were headed for a real collision course," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "If this were a game, this would all be pretty interesting, the machinations. But this is not a game."

What California needs is the next 50 years with democrat control in the government to clean up this mess that the sitting political party has created in the previous 50 years.

[SaxxonWoods]

I can’t wait to see what CA does when the millionaires have either left or implemented tax strategies to avoid the new higher taxes.

[laconic]

Apparently, about one-third of the “rich” left California from 2007 forward. Give Jerry Brown five years and the only “rich” left will be his friends in Hollywood.

[funfan]

But it is not a tax on Millionaires it is a tax on 250K and 300K and 500K they just call it a millionaires tax. Lucky for Brown people here don't seem to read the proposals and will just assume it is on Millionaires. This state is a stupid joke.

“The new plan would raise the statewide sales tax by a quarter-cent rather than a half-cent per every dollar. It retains Brown's three-tier income-tax hike starting at $250,000 for singles and $500,000 for couples. But the last two brackets increase by greater amounts than Brown originally proposed, with the highest rate rising to 12.3 percent starting at $500,000 of income for single filers.”

“While I think politically using the word ‘millionaire’ was helpful, really our political motivation was to look at the top 1 percent of income earners, and I actually think this measure is more true to that,” Pechthalt said.”

[EGPWS]

I can’t wait to see what CA does when the millionaires have either left or implemented tax strategies to avoid the new higher taxes.

That took a millisecond of thought....

Run to Washington D.C. and DEMAND money to bail them out, and get it.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SmithL.

After a months-long feud with his most liberal allies, Gov. Jerry Brown compromised Wednesday to eliminate a rival tax initiative for the November ballot. The new proposal Brown forged with the California Federation of Teachers and left-leaning activists would rely more on taxing the rich to raise an estimated $9 billion for California's budget. The Democratic governor tried with little success to knock CFT's rival tax on millionaires off the November ballot.

Watch for Moonbeamy to change party affiliations after the national election in November. This isn't based on anything but a feelin'.