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A bipartisan poll conducted for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times found that 64% of registered voters would be willing to pay higher taxes to boost funding for public schools.
In municipal elections held throughout California on Nov. 8, voters approved 41 of 53 local tax, fee and bond measures, many of which required a two-thirds majority to pass.
"We can't wait for the marketplace to start solving our problems," said Josh Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which is pushing for a tax on millionaires to help fund K-12 education, state universities and public safety. "We have to have government move forward now to make sure our bridges are not collapsing and we're getting adequate funding for education."
Other proposals would ask voters to pay sales taxes on services and effectively raise levies on out-of-state companies that do business in California but maintain their workforces and offices elsewhere.
Tax advocates, including Gov.Jerry Brown, are hoping California's ongoing fiscal crisis will help their cause as the state braces for more service cuts.
In Riverside, for instance, voters renewed an expiring $19 parcel tax for the next decade to help fund library services. The measure, expected to generate $1.4 million a year, represents a quarter of the city's library budget. Demand, officials said, has been surging in the economic downturn.
In Oakdale, a town of roughly 19,000 near Yosemite National Park, voters passed a half-cent sales tax this month to maintain fire and police staffing as the city pares the rest of its workforce.
A proposal being assembled by the Think Long Committee, a group of political insiders and civic-minded billionaires, would raise taxes by as much as $10 billion a year. The money, which would largely be generated by a sales tax on services, would go directly to schools, universities and local governments.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxes-20111126,0,2599336.story
In municipal elections held throughout California on Nov. 8, voters approved 41 of 53 local tax, fee and bond measures, many of which required a two-thirds majority to pass.
"We can't wait for the marketplace to start solving our problems," said Josh Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which is pushing for a tax on millionaires to help fund K-12 education, state universities and public safety. "We have to have government move forward now to make sure our bridges are not collapsing and we're getting adequate funding for education."
Other proposals would ask voters to pay sales taxes on services and effectively raise levies on out-of-state companies that do business in California but maintain their workforces and offices elsewhere.
Tax advocates, including Gov.Jerry Brown, are hoping California's ongoing fiscal crisis will help their cause as the state braces for more service cuts.
In Riverside, for instance, voters renewed an expiring $19 parcel tax for the next decade to help fund library services. The measure, expected to generate $1.4 million a year, represents a quarter of the city's library budget. Demand, officials said, has been surging in the economic downturn.
In Oakdale, a town of roughly 19,000 near Yosemite National Park, voters passed a half-cent sales tax this month to maintain fire and police staffing as the city pares the rest of its workforce.
A proposal being assembled by the Think Long Committee, a group of political insiders and civic-minded billionaires, would raise taxes by as much as $10 billion a year. The money, which would largely be generated by a sales tax on services, would go directly to schools, universities and local governments.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxes-20111126,0,2599336.story
