January 5, 2012—The Restoring California Coalition released the following statement today regarding the Governor’s 2012 budget proposal:

Governor Brown’s 2012 budget proposal demonstrates the continuing dire need of the state for increased revenues to fund programs that Californians want and deserve. Without new revenues, his budget proposal would continue to slash funding from education and services.

In a rational world, the Legislature would address the problem of inadequate revenues, due to low tax rates on the rich coupled with the impact of the recession, directly with tax increases. But California’s irrational two-thirds Legislative vote requirement prevents that from happening.

So the governor’s idea to go to the ballot with a tax initiative is the right idea. The problem is his tax proposal itself. As Anthony Thigpenn, president of California Calls, says, “Here we go again cutting desperately needed services for the most vulnerable populations in the state. And to save these programs, the governor’s solution is to rely on a sales tax for a large proportion of the money, which would disproportionately impact the people who are already hurting.”

The Millionaires Tax is a better answer to the question, “How do we begin to restore funding for education and social services that has been slashed over the past several years?” The Millionaires Tax only affects people who make over a million dollars a year, and unlike the governor’s proposal, it is a permanent tax increase, so that we don’t have to go through this process every year. In addition, public opinion research shows the Millionaires Tax has the best chance of passing muster with the public.