Gov. Moonbeam Begs California To Raise Taxes

However, since several measures like this have been defeated by the voters in recent years, I don't think this one is going to be successful either:

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday proposed a ballot initiative that would ask Californians to raise taxes on themselves.

Facing huge deficits despite $10 billion in budget cuts last year, California needs new tax dollars in order to avoid catastrophic cuts to schools and government services for the elderly, Governor Brown said.

His plan includes a 1 percent income-tax-rate increase for individuals making more than $250,000 per year, and a 2 percent rate increase for those making more than $500,000. It would also increase the state sales tax by half a cent to 7.75 percent.

In total, at least 10 initiatives that propose tax increases are vying to qualify for the 2012 ballot in California – a sign that the state that led the national tax revolt with Proposition 13 in 1978 might now be considering at least a partial reversal of course.

With many states still focused only on cuts, such a bold statement from California could reverberate nationwide – either giving other states cover to try similar measures or showing that, even with budgets in dire straits, tax increases are a political impossibility.

“A victory for tax increases in California could encourage similar moves in other states,” says Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. “If the tax measure goes down to defeat – in a blue state running a huge deficit – the effect would be to chill such proposals in other states for many years to come.”

Brown’s proposal is projected to raise $7 billion per year and would expire in 2016.

At which point the legislature will try and pass a new law to extend the taxes. In California it's very rare for taxes, once enacted, to ever go away. We did recently have some "temporary" tax hikes expire after the legislature couldn't agree on a plan to extend them, but the rule of thumb is to expect any new taxes to last forever.

Moonbeam insists the budget has been cut as far as it can be, but that's simply nonsense. California still has dozens and dozens of special boards and commissions, each stocked with part-time members making six figure salaries, and none of which contribute anything useful to the state. They're used to reward political cronies, nothing more.

Let's start cutting the programs that are promoting poverty by enabling people to live...barely... off the state dole at the expense of the workers, instead of punishing the successful with more taxation.