California Insider

A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

Back to California Insider home page

« Foes start picking at split roll measure | | CTA drops tax increase measure »

April 08, 2004

Hospitals pull back from phone tax

Backers of a plan to raise taxes on telephone calls to pay for emergency room care say they still plan to turn in 900,000 signatures on Monday, despite the loss of a major financial sponsor: California's hospital association. A spokeswoman for the hospitals says early polling suggests voters will be in no mood to raise taxes this fall, a sentiment that would likely doom the ballot initiative. There's been speculation in the Capitol over the past several days that the phone tax proponents will pull back and leave their measure off the ballot. Here is a story on the issue from The Bee.