Tuesday Nov. 6 California voted to pass Proposition 30, which will raise California resident's taxes to fund education.
Prop 30 will increase sales taxes by .25 cents and income taxes will be raised for individuals who make more than $250,000. "Prop. 30 will raise the sales tax by one penny for every $4 spent for four years, while increasing the income tax on the state's highest earners for seven years. It would generate about $6 billion per year in new revenue. The sales tax hike will go into effect Jan. 1, while the personal income tax increase is retroactive to the beginning of this year," reported The San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that if the proposition didn't pass there would have been $6 billion in education cuts.
Governor Jerry Brown was a major campaigner for the Proposition and said to CBS This morning, "People believe in our schools and our university and what it represents for opportunity for people who are in low-income circumstances. Look, this was a tough battle. A lot of people say we couldn't do it. A lot of people said 'you're crazy to go to the people,' but I ran for governor on the pledge that there would be no taxes unless the people themselves voted for them and in this case, they did and it's only after, however, 30,000 fewer teachers, we had a massive budget deficit of $27 billion and I've cut that thing and we'll be balanced. This January, we'll have the first balanced budget since 1998 and that's a positive. And I think the reason why is because I think people were willing to ask for some more revenue because the cuts have been -- across the board...this has been a very tough fiscal program of austerity. Three dollars of cuts for every dollar of income and I think that's the reason why people finally said, 'OK. Enough is enough. We'll vote you some more money.'"
The proposition will go towards pubic schools and universities. The San Francisco chronicle reported that it won with an 8 percent lead.
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