GOP: ballot plan with tax twist?

02 February 2011 |permalink | email article

After Gov. Jerry Brown nudged California Republicans in his State of the State address on Monday to join his call for a special election to “let voters decide” solutions to the state budget crisis the party opposite may be developing their own budget plan, complete with a new twist.

Some leading Republicans and anti-tax figures may call Brown’s bluff and support a special June election if tax cuts, as well as tax extensions, are offered to voters on the ballot.

Hat tip to Chronicle/SF Gate.com who were told by Jon Cupal, who heads the influential Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association that some GOP lawmakers came up with the idea after Brown argued that they might be seen as “thumbing their noses” at voters by blocking a special election to allow them to weigh in on tax extensions and billions in budget cuts.

Asked how Republicans could meet or even counter Brown’s challenge, Coupal said: “I think it’s quite easy. Republicans should agree to put those tax increases on the ballot on one condition: parallel tax reductions.

He said the plan would work like this: Brown has proposed a five year tax extension that includes a .25 percent surtax on personal income tax. That would go on the ballot – as would a corresponding .25 decrease. The same would hold true for the vehicle license fee, and the sales tax.

That, Coupal believes, would give voters a chance, on each of the proposed taxes, the option “to increase it by whatever amount, to decrease it or reject both. If all this seems complicated for the average voter it is. In a KCBS radio interview yesterday afternoon Brown responded, saying tax rollbacks could dig the state deeper in debt. So the battle appears joined. 

What they said

“I’m sure that him having worked so well with me will be a great asset in any Republican primary.” – President Obama, poking fun at John Huntsman, the former Utah governor and his ambassador to China, who is resigning to consider a bid to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

A look at the DC lobbyists who worked for Mubark.http://bloom.bg/gli9uH – NBC’s Chuck Todd tweeting.

 

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