Tax Initiatives

Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign for Proposition 30, his sales and income tax increase, more or less promised voters that it would solve the state's chronic budget problems.

Gov. Jerry Brown expressed confidence Tuesday night that his embattled tax initiative would survive as early returns showed the race too close to call and most votes in populous counties like Los Angeles had yet to be counted.

Gov. Jerry Brown, rallying union workers and volunteers here Saturday for his campaign to raise taxes, continued to hammer his opponents for accepting an $11 million donation from an opaque, out-of-state group, while urging supporters to intensify their efforts in the final days before the election.

Jerry Brown has amassed a strong record of winning California elections in a career that's spanned more than four decades, beginning with a seat on the Los Angeles community college board in 1969.

Gov. Jerry Brown has framed it as a simple choice for voters: Pass Proposition 30 or schools will suffer early shutdowns and college students will pay higher tuition.

(Nov. 1) Public support for Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative to raise taxes remains below 50 percent, but the measure no longer appears to be on a downward trajectory, leaving Brown within striking distance one week before Election Day, according to a new Field Poll.

A week before Election Day, the effort to convince voters to approve Proposition 30 appears to be falling short.

A committee advocating for Proposition 32, the Nov. 6 measure to change California's campaign finance law, recently launched a 30-second TV ad. Here's the text of the ad with analysis by The Bee Capitol Bureau's Jon Ortiz.

The No on 30 campaign launched a new ad this week attacking Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative raising taxes for education and the state budget. Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau:

FRESNO – His tax initiative in trouble just two weeks before Election Day, Gov. Jerry Brown is re-tuning his campaign message, casting his initiative as a jobs measure in a bid to broaden its appeal.

Long before political ads dominated the airwaves and arguments erupted over which Nov. 6 tax initiative best serves schools, Gov. Jerry Brown sought crucial support from county officials in a cramped conference room one block from the Capitol.

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday accused opponents of his Nov. 6 ballot measure to raise taxes of illegal money laundering, saying the committee that accepted an $11 million donation from an out-of-state group is shielding the identities of its donors because it is ashamed of them.

As details emerge about an out-of-state group that dumped $11 million into California politics this week, a good-government organization this morning called for an investigation into who is behind the money.

California State University officials acknowledged Thursday that one of their professors had crossed the line in using public resources to advocate for Proposition 30.

If he had just one vote on Nov. 6, the president of the California Federation of Teachers wouldn't use it on Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike for schools.

In California's ever-expensive ballot wars, voters typically know who funds advertisements that hold great sway with the electorate.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday urged students to rally support on college campuses for his Nov. 6 ballot initiative to raise taxes.

A shadowy Phoenix-based group contributed $11 million Monday to a campaign committee funding attacks on Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative and supporting a measure curbing union dues collection, a new campaign finance report shows.

As he began his second governorship last year, Jerry Brown warned that California faced a potential "war of all against all" if the state budget was not fairly balanced, or as the former Catholic seminarian put it in Latin, "bellum omnium contra omnes."

Gov. Jerry Brown hoped a mix of politicking and good fortune would deter negative ads against his tax initiative in the campaign's final weeks.

Tax proponent Molly Munger said Thursday she plans to fund her Proposition 38 efforts up to Election Day and has no reason to back away from an ad critical of Gov. Jerry Brown's tax campaign.

Wealthy attorney Molly Munger, who wants voters to raise income taxes for education and state budget relief in Proposition 38, formed a new committee this week for the express purpose of critiquing rival tax initiative Proposition 30.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson tried to intervene Wednesday in the ongoing tax initiative fray by calling on wealthy Proposition 38 proponent Molly Munger to remove her ads attacking Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30.

Molly Munger, an attorney who has spent more than $30 million on the Proposition 38 campaign to raise taxes, launched an ad today criticizing Gov. Jerry Brown's rival tax increase measure, Proposition 30, for allowing "politicians" to "take" money away from schools.

A day after Molly Munger said she would air television ads pinpointing flaws in Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative, a coalition of educators, politicians and labor leaders called on the wealthy attorney to "re-think this destructive course of action."

Accusing Gov. Jerry Brown of running "utterly deceptive" ads in his campaign to raise taxes, Molly Munger said on a Los Angeles TV show this morning that her own tax campaign will air television ads making a "distinction" between her measure and Brown's.

The still-lagging tax initiative financed by wealthy attorney Molly Munger spent more than seven times more than Gov. Jerry Brown's tax campaign committee through September, new campaign finance filings show.

Charles Munger Jr. has now given a nearly $23 million to an independent committee fighting for a measure that would curtail union political fundraising abilities while opposing Gov. Jerry Brown's tax proposal.

It is undoubtedly challenging for voters to understand how Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike initiative, Proposition 30, will fund schools and other state programs.

Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign to raise taxes went up this morning with its first television ad, painting Proposition 30 as an effort to protect school funding from "Sacramento politicians" - without once mentioning the tax increase or the fact it is a Sacramento politician proposing it.

Republican activist Charles Munger Jr. has given more than $10 million to an independent committee supporting Proposition 32's campaign finance provisions and opposing Proposition 30's tax increase, according to a new state filing.

The Legislature is out, but the Assembly Budget Committee is in, with a hearing today on November's three tax initiatives -- Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30, Molly Munger's Proposition 38 and Tom Steyer's Proposition 39.

In a swipe at Gov. Jerry Brown and his ballot measure to raise taxes, the campaign for a rival tax measure suggested in its first statewide TV ad, released today, that Brown's initiative is the product of "Sacramento politicians" who have reduced school funding for years.

Public support for Gov. Jerry Brown's ballot initiative to raise taxes has slipped to just more than 50 percent, a precarious majority with a growing number of voters now undecided, according to a new Field Poll.

Arguing for more revenues to bolster the state's finances, Gov. Jerry Brown called his November tax initiative "common sense" Thursday and blamed his predecessor for leaving California with an ongoing budget gap.

Here are the statistical tabulations, prepared exclusively for Capitol Alert, on Californians' view of three tax increase initiatives on the Nov. 6 ballot and how the high-speed rail project could affect voters' views of Gov. Jerry Brown's tax plan. Here are the publicly released results from the poll.

Gov. Jerry Brown is a big proponent of high-speed rail, but if the Legislature votes this week to fund the project, it could hurt him in the fall.

As Democratic state leaders continue budget negotiations, Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike on sales and upper-income earners officially qualified Wednesday for the November ballot, as did two other tax measures.