Dan Walters: One high-stakes duel averted as CTA drops business tax measure

Sacramento Bee ^ | 8/5/5 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

There is no shortage of high-stakes political duels in California - especially those that pit Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against Democrats and unions - but under odd circumstances, one potential collision was averted Thursday.

The California Teachers Association suddenly dropped a ballot measure that would have levied billions of dollars in new property taxes on business to boost school spending.

Publicly, the powerful union and other elements of the Education Coalition issued a torrent of sugary words with the business groups that would have spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat the pending "split roll" measure in next June's election.

They jointly pledged "an historic effort to address long-term solutions for improving school funding and the quality of education in California ..." in lieu of the property tax measure, but with no specifics.

Nobody in the Capitol, however, was fooled by the public demonstrations of mutual respect. In high-level politics, no one spends millions of dollars to qualify a multibillion-dollar initiative and then drops it unless there's some kind of back story - some unstated motive. Those who attended the news conference in the CTA headquarters a block from the Capitol weren't talking, but it was evident that the business representatives were invited to provide a veneer of accord, a small price to pay for avoiding a very expensive campaign.

There are several plausible reasons why the CTA would have backtracked, and the truth is probably some combination thereof. They include:

* Fears that Schwarzenegger would use the proposed business property tax increase - about $3 billion a year - as ammunition as he asks voters to approve his state spending limit measure (Proposition 76) in November. Schwarzenegger probably would have characterized it as proof that the unions have an insatiable lust for tax money...

[SmithL]

They may have dropped it for now, but they still want more of your money.

[SmithL]

Follow-up to this story:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1457135/posts?page=1