Posted on 06/08/2006 10:24:29 AM PDT by SmithL
Phil Angelides won his wicked mano a mano brawl with state Controller Steve Westly for the Democratic nomination for governor, but now the state treasurer has to take his campaign call for higher taxes to a penny-pinching electorate that turned down a variety of pricey ballot measures Tuesday.
Voters not only rejected the controversial Proposition 82, which would have raised taxes on wealthy Californians to pay for universal preschool, but also defeated Proposition 81, a $600 million library bond measure that had no organized opposition.
In the Bay Area, efforts to boost local sales taxes to improve transportation were beaten back in Santa Clara, Napa and Solano counties.
"Calling for a $5 billion tax increase is always a challenge, but the defeat of (Prop. 82) makes that effort even tougher,'' said Dan Schnur, a veteran GOP consultant now teaching at UC Berkeley.
If a California general election is typically a sprint to the political middle after a primary spent at the extremes of the Democratic left and Republican right, Angelides' promise to ease the state's budget woes by boosting corporate taxes and "asking multimillionaires to pay their fair share again'' could be an anchor in that race.
The tax plan was popular with the liberal Democrats who carried Angelides to victory in the low-turnout primary election, but Westly and his supporters slammed a tax boost as both unnecessary and unworkable. Now Angelides has to make his pitch to a much wider audience of Republican and nonpartisan voters who are even less likely to applaud any plan to raise taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Yeah P[h]ill, go with that tax and spend stuff.
I expect Californians to hold their noses and vote for Arnold, seeing that McClintock is also running for Lt. Governor.
Yeah, we think a $5 billion tax increase can get through.
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