Phil Matier: Brown's Tax Initiative Winning Polls
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The Brown administration will release a set of polls on Wednesday showing voter feelings over a number of tax measures on the November ballot.
A lot rides on not only how the questions were asked, but also how many questions there are. In this case people were asked about the three tax initiatives that people are out gathering signatures for. Governor Jerry Brown has made it know that he's not too happy about two of the initiatives.
First up is Brown's own initiative, which he would like to have on the November ballot. About 53 percent of voters might go for his idea of a split tax between increasing the sales tax, and increasing the income tax for some of the richest people.
However, there's the Millionaire's Tax, which the California Federation of Teachers is putting out, which would put millionaire's tax money towards education. This initiative polls slightly better at 55 percent.
KCBS, CBS5 and SF Chronicle Insider Phil Matier Reports:
The third is the Molly Monger Tax, which was suggested by an activist in Southern California, which would basically increase just about everybody's income tax except for the very poorest people. That money would go to education as well. Voters don't seem to like the idea of everyone getting hit however, so that is polling at only 31 percent.
The problem is that polls show that if you put all three measures on the ballot, which is possible, that they all would fail.
Brown's would drop down to 43 percent, the Millionaires Tax drops to 42, and the Molly Monger tax drops to 17 percent. That means it's a circular firing squad as far as the governor is concerned.
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