The head of the California Teachers Association says he anticipates his union will put "considerable" money into Gov. Jerry Brown's tax increase measure, but funds may be tighter than usual as the group faces multiple ballot battles.
CTA President Dean E. Vogel says the union is focused on fighting a November measure that would restrict member dues collection and spending on candidate campaigns. He said CTA is also waiting to see whether a new proposal to cap future state spending will qualify for the ballot, a proposal the group would also fight.
In 2005, CTA imposed a $60 annual surcharge on members for three years to raise $50 million to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a special election, which included measures to restrict union dues and cap state spending. But Vogel said this time is different.
"The last time in this position, we did a special assessment to get more money," Vogel said. "but we're not in a position to get more money right now."
Vogel said CTA will probably decide in March how to divide its funds this year.
"We're going to wait and see what things are looking like," he said. "We believe because of the broad-based appeal (Brown's) initiative has, it's going to qualify. We're very concerned about a potential spending cap initiative and how that's going to play out."
>BALLOT WATCH
Dozens of initiative proposals for the Nov. 6 ballot are on the streets. But two other measures are set for the primary election on June 5. Secretary of State Debra Bowen gave them numbers on Monday: Proposition 28 would reduce from 14 to 12 years the amount of time a lawmaker can serve. Proposition 29 would hike the cigarette tax by $1 a pack.
>WORTH REPEATING
"Pursuing a partisan campaign at this time would inevitably distract from my top priority – reforming our government to better serve its citizens."
BOB HERTZBERG, former Assembly speaker, who decided not to run for state Senate. The Democrat had previously said he was "certainly very interested in running" if district maps remained unchanged.
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