Governor Brown is so hell-bent on increasing taxes as opposed to doing the hard work of cutting the size and scope of government, that it was no surprise this afternoon to read this Sac Bee headline: “Jerry Brown has the cash to qualify initiative”. That’s right, if Governor Brown can’t arm-twist Republicans into supporting his tax increase, he’s going to hit the streets gathering signatures for a November ballot proposition.
The part of this particular article that caught my interest was this line: “Despite facing Republican Meg Whitman and her record-breaking spending in last year’s gubernatorial race, Brown has more than $4 million in the bank, according to his most recent campaign statements.” I don’t know if it’s idle speculation or Brown has intimated it, but this seems to imply the governor is willing to use his campaign account to finance the signature gathering.
Upon reading this, I couldn’t help but think back to another post by the Sac Bee just this morning that would explain why Governor Brown has $4 million to spend on raising taxes. As the Sac Bee reported, the CTA just began airing two radio ads statewide demanding public education spending remain untouched by budget cuts. (I heard one of the ads this morning on Los Angeles talk radio station KFI.) That’s why Democrat politicians like Jerry Brown can come out of a bruising election with their war chest still intact: unions.
The CTA is one of the biggest political spenders every year. They support the politicians who will do everything in their power to protest powerful union interests—especially increasing taxes to fund lavish contracts, salaries and pensions for union members. While the Sac Bee and other media outlets may speculate Brown is so committed to his cause he’ll spend his millions to finance the largest tax increase in California history, I have a strong suspicion his friends at the CTA and other unions will be more than willing to outspend anything he throws in to the pot.