Give the people what they want
by David Atkins
The numbers are in on the California “Millionaires’ Tax” initiative, and they’re looking good:
Likely voters in California continue to support the tax initiative that Gov. Jerry Brown seeks to place on the ballot in November, but they have strong reservations about the provision that would raise the state sales tax.
Those were among the findings reported Wednesday in the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California’s latest survey of 823 likely voters who were interviewed April 3-10 on landline and cellular phones.
The survey showed likely voters are sharply divided along partisan lines over the Brown initiative. It temporarily would raise the income tax rate on couples earning $500,000 a year or more and also increase the state sales tax by one-quarter cent.
Overall, likely voters supported the proposal 54 percent to 39 percent. Three-quarters of Democrats backed the idea, while nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Republicans opposed it. A slight majority (53 percent) of the key group in the middle, independents, were in support.
The survey asked respondents separately about the two components of the initiative. An overwhelming majority (65 percent) supported the notion of raising income taxes on the wealthy, while a slight majority (52) opposed the sales tax idea.
Not a surprise. Consider it data point #1,317,928 that the public supports progressive taxation and opposes regressive taxation. But that’s just spoiled voters wanting to raise somebody else’s taxes, right? Surely the rich already pay more than their share of the burden, right?
Not so. Per the California Budget Project, the bottom quintile of California incomes pay 10.2% of their incomes in state and local taxes. The 2nd poorest quintile pay 8.7%. The next three quintiles pay anywhere from 7.5% to 8.2%. And top quintile? The lowest rate at 7.4%.
The wealthy have it very good in California. They’ve got it especially good because of the 2/3 supermajority rule (created by Proposition 13) on increasing taxes in the legislature, which means that any remotely progressive taxation measure has to go straight to the voters, since Republicans control a smidgen over 1/3 of the seats in each chamber of the legislature.
The only reason the initiative might fail is because Governor Brown insisted on keeping the quarter cent sales tax provision–a move his supporters have said was necessary to avert furious opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and other conservative organizations. I’m skeptical that the conservative organizations will hold their fire regardless–and I’m also skeptical of the idea that even if the Governor were right, the full opposition of business interests would do more damage to the legislation than the sales tax itself creates.
It might be better–at the state and national level–to simply give the people what they want, especially since the people are entirely justified and fiscally responsible in demanding it. That’s how democracy is supposed to work, isn’t it?
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