Jockeying begins for California tax initiatives
By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee
The high-pressure game of signature gathering outside stores has turned into a mad dash to election offices across California as tax proponents submit their petitions for the November ballot.
Gov. Jerry Brown is pinning his budget hopes on his multibillion-dollar tax hike on sales and high-income earners. But he faces a dogged challenge from wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger and the California State PTA, who said Monday that they submitted 848,000 signatures for a separate tax initiative, likely more than enough to qualify for November.
Munger’s initiative would raise an estimated $10 billion annually for 12 years by hiking the state income tax on all but the poorest earners along a sliding scale. Money would flow to the state’s K-12 schools and early childhood programs. For the first four fiscal years, the initiative would also provide $3 billion to help the state’s general fund budget.
Munger, the daughter of billionaire Charles Munger, has been the sole financier of the campaign so far with $7.2 million in contributions to date.