governor

Gov. Brown has been hinting that – if he can’t get Republican votes in the next few days to put tax extensions on the ballot – he will do something else to get on the ballot. Example: Brown considering other paths on taxes as Republicans stand firm in talks Steven Harmon, Contra Costa Times, 3/22/11 SACRAMENTO — As Gov. Jerry Brown continued to negotiate with Republican legislators on his plan to extend taxes, he also has begun to weigh going it alone, sources said Tuesday. That could take two paths — forcing a special election onto the ballot through a…

From former State Assembly Leader Willie Brown’s column this week in the San Francisco Chronicle: What a town. I was at Walgreens the other afternoon and was stunned by the number of people lined up to buy potassium iodide to ward off the possible effects of radiation wafting over from Japan. Even more stunning was watching those same people, clutching their iodide protection, proceed to jaywalk across New Montgomery Street and dodge cars in their rush to get back to work. Full column is at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/20/BAAT1IEMD4.DTL Actually, the item in the column that you might want to panic about is…

Gov. Brown still does not have the few Republican votes he needs to put his proposed tax extensions on the ballot. My guess is that he has until about April 1 to get those votes if the election is to occur before the end of June. An election could occur after June 30, of course, but that would a) put it into the next fiscal year (for which the vote is supposed to apply) and b) make it hard to refer to the proposal as tax “extensions” (rather than increases) since the temporary taxes will then have expired. Below is…

The California Field Poll suggests voter support for the governor’s proposed tax extensions. The table above summarizes the results when the question is asked generally. When it is asked more explicitly (see below, naming the taxes), there is somewhat less support (58%) but still a majority. “The governor is proposing to extend for five more years the one-cent increase in the state sales tax, the ½ percent increase in vehicle license fees and the ¼ percent increase in personal income taxes that the state enacted in 2009. Some of the money would be transferred to local governments for schools, public…

As prior posts have noted, Gov. Brown set a deadline of 60 days after his budget proposal was announced to have a budget passed and to obtain a 2/3 vote from the legislature to put his tax extensions on the ballot. Today is deadline day and he still has no deal for the Republican votes needed for the tax extensions. Democrats could pass a budget by majority vote that assumes there will be tax extensions but if there is no ballot vote, the budget would be out of whack. You can read about it at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/03/10/3463706/day-60-what-now.html We also noted in…

From today’s Sacramento Bee (excerpt): Gov. Jerry Brown’s prospects of reaching a budget deal by his deadline this week dimmed markedly Monday when a quintet of Republicans with whom he’d been negotiating declared an impasse. The GOP senators for the first time released a list of demands – covering pensions, spending restrictions and education reforms, among other things – and said the Democratic governor and his legislative allies were unable to fulfill them. “We accepted your invitation to bring you our ideas on important structural reforms and willingly took to heart your admonition ‘to get out of our comfort zone,’…