It’s being reported that Governor Jerry Brown flew down to Los Angeles yesterday to go pitch the businesses in the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce on why they should support his budget plan (and put pressure on GOP legislators to do the same). Jerry Brown just doesn’t get it. Look in the rear view mirror. In 2009, the very same taxes he wants to extend for five years were enacted as part of a budget deal that spawned an ill-fated ballot measure that would have extended the taxes for just two more years. That ballot measure, as everyone knows, was defeated by almost a two-to-one margin in a June 2009 special election.
I wonder if Jerry Brown is aware of the fact that the “business community” in California (most notably the CalChamber) supported both the terrible budget deal and the passage of the extension of the taxes that appeared on the ballot. It was a clear demonstration of a disconnect between California voters and big business (of course in that budget deal, the Chamber backed higher income, sales and car taxes on the general populace while supporting billions in tax breaks for big business at the same time, in what can only be characterized as a shameless maneuver).
Anyways, if Jerry Brown is looking to garner meaningful support for his plan to hike taxes on California families by as much as a couple of thousand dollars a year for the next five years – he should probably take his case to taxpayers. Republicans oppose putting taxes on the ballot for two primary reasons – the first of which is that raising taxes is poor public policy that will stifle economic recovery, and the second is that they are listening to voters who have rejected the last seven attempts to have them raise taxes.
It would be very welcome, indeed, if the CalChamber would stand with working Californians and declare their firm opposition to any new taxes, whether on businesses, or on the people. But given the rejection of these same taxes two years ago that Brown wants now, and taking into account voter rejection of them despite Chamber support, it seems like Jerry Brown is really barking up the wrong tree.
Jerry Brown’s conversation needs to be with families with tight budgets, where most everyone has an immediate family member or close relative that is unemployed, and make the case to them why state government needs thousands and thousands of their hard-earned dollars more than they do.
** I should note that while the CalChamber and many regional Chambers of Commerce supported the massive tax increase that would have been triggered with the passage of Prop. 1A in 2009, representatives of small business, like the National Federation of Business, California, stood tall, firmly opposing the taxes which, of course, hit small businesses hard.