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Even Californians Oppose Raising Taxes to Balance the Budget

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According to a poll which has been shown to Governor Brown, a significant majority of our fellow Californians oppose increasing taxes to balance the state’s budget: “Asked whether they’d prefer ‘less government and lower taxes’ or ‘slightly higher taxes for better government services,’ 57% opted for lower taxes.”

This “voter survey,” according to the Los Angeles Times was “conducted by veteran Democratic pollster Jim Moore.”  So, it’s a Democratic poll for a Democratic governor.

The article did indicate that Brown is not entirely following in the footsteps of his counterpart in the Land of Lincoln as he is proposing “cutting employees’ take-home pay by 8% to 10%.”  (I’m assuming this refers to public employees.)  But, the report hints that he may indeed pull a page from Illinois Governor Quinn since reporter George Skelton claims he’ll need to “Persuade voters that stanching the red ink in Sacramento is necessary to rebuild the California economy and create jobs.”

Um, that sounds like a tax increase is in the offing (or Skelton wants one to be).  Yet, stanching the red ink alone won’t be enough to rebuild the California economy and create jobs.

If the governor wants to do that, he’s going to have to cut taxes and reduce regulations.  Hey, it’s what a majority of Californians want, at least as concerns the tax cuts.

Comments

  1. I doubt the Democrats will care. They pushed Obamacare even though a solid majority opposed it. They just pushed through a 66% tax increase in Illinois, which I am sure they voters didn’t want. The Holy Grail of California Democrat politics is to repeal Prop 13.

    Democrats don’t answer to the people; they only answer to the collection of special interest groups (unions, environmentalists, trial lawyers) that finance their elections.

  6. Hi BDB,
    When I read the article, I get a slightly different take on the results. I don’t get the don’t raise taxes bit as clearly as you do. What I get is that Californians want value for the taxes they pay. That means that “Most voters don’t mind paying taxes for K-12 schools. Maybe even for healthcare, police and fire protection.” When you add to this that: “Asked whether they’d prefer “less government and lower taxes” or “slightly higher taxes for better government services,” 57% opted for lower taxes. But when the question was rephrased and the second option was “better value for the taxes you currently pay,” 72% opted for better value”, then you get a different, more nuanced picture than the one that you present. The article also added, “In a poll last May by the Public Policy Institute of California, 64% of likely voters said they’d pay higher taxes to protect school funding.”

    Yes, we would like less taxes, and we don’t want them raised, but we would consider doing special deals to protect schools, etc. It would also be beneficial to cut spending on stuff that Californians do not care about, as a majority. That is what I took away from the article.

  7. Fair point, Cas, but note that 72% want a better value for taxes they currently pay. That shows now appetite for higher taxes and could mean, that if we have to pay these taxes we want a better value for them.

    (Perhaps more on that point anon.)

  8. Had we a gubanatorial candidate that spoke clearly about the issue, this may not be coming to pass. Yes, I did vote for Whitman in the general, but Poizner in the primary. I do not feel that Whitman was strong enough to connect with the voters and, like it or not, Brown did. And a lot of people in California now were not here when he was governor. But leaving that aside, I believe that Gov. Brown will find a way to raise taxes WITHOUT voter consent. After all, he is Democrat. And they have not a met a tax hike that they would not consider.

  10. V the K is correct. The Democrats don’t care; all they care about is their centralized government agenda. Let California’s government sink into the ocean because, in their twisted view, the Federal Government will rescue California with a bailout. Obama will try to bailout California & go around Congress. This will be interesting to watch since Congress controls the money.

  12. Democrats always look at the problem of deficits in terms of the Government not having enough money, never in terms of the Government spending too much. Their interest groups are always demanding more, so, they think, How can Government possibly be spending too much? ”

    Illinois Democrats claim the 66% tax increase is a temporary, emergency measure. Does anyone believe them?

    Sean, just look for the vthek profile.

  14. Really, folks, what is there to poll?

    1. Do you want more value for your tax dollars? (Yes.)

    2. Do you favor raising your taxes? (Yes.)

    3. Do you favor cutting wasteful spending? (Yes.)

    4. Do you want successful public education, police and fire protection? (Yes.)

    5, Do you want streets maintained and garbage removed? (Yes.)

    6. Do you favor safe bridges? (Yes.)

    7. A thousand more such valence issues.(Yes.) (Yes.) (Yes.) (etc.)

    When a dollar passes through five levels of bureaucracy it is being eaten away by the salary and falderal costs at each level. It poops out the other end as pennies to be thrown at the original intent.

    To have a safe bridge, the state has to have a safe bridge commissioner with an office and staff and satellite offices of regional bridge lieutenants who consult with county engineers and city engineers and mayors and supervisors and does slide shows for school children and garden clubs.

    These tiers upon tiers of bureaucrats are always busy. They come to work everyday and do paperwork and file reports and measure progress and talk about progress and decide to get answers on progress and start new projects and sign off on finished projects and send information up and orders down and take care of e-mail and review contracts and clear up contract compliance hitches and ……..

    That is what taxes are all about.

    Here is a short tale of government. A new hospital unit has decided to change rooms for patients in the old unit into office space. That way, the new hospital can upgrade and expand the patient care facilities and the administrative units will occupy the old hospital care rooms. But wait! The sprinkler system in the old unit does not meet the code for a sprinkler system in an office. You have that right. A 24/7 patient in a hospital bed does not require the sprinkler system necessary for a 9 to 5 office. So the hospital will have to rip out a perfectly sound sprinkler system and replace it with an upgraded model. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. (This happens to be a government hospital.)

  15. “Asked whether they’d support the tax extensions to avoid up to 25% cuts in “schools, public safety and healthcare,” 56% answered yes.”
    “In a poll last May by the Public Policy Institute of California, 64% of likely voters said they’d pay higher taxes to protect school funding.”

    So, this means that Californians oppose taxes?