Supporters of an initiative that would tax the wealthiest Californians rallied in downtown Oakland Tuesday afternoon to garner support and collect signatures to place the measure on the November state ballot.
About 40 people gathered in front of the Elihu M. Harris State of California Office Building for a 4 p.m. Occupy Education event, which featured speakers from several Occupy movements, labor unions and community members which support the proposed “Millionaires Tax.”
Should the proposal pass, Californians earning $1 million or more would pay an extra 3 percent in state income tax, and those earning $2 million or more would pay an additional 5 percent in income tax, according to the initiative’s website. The tax initiative would generate $6 billion to $9.5 billion per year, according to its website.
But earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown amended his original tax initiative to align more with the Millionaires Tax by increasing his proposed tax on on Californians in the highest annual income bracket — $500,000 for singles and $1 million for couples — by 3 percentage points instead of the 2 percentage points his original initiative called for. The new version of Brown’s initiative would also only increase state sales tax by a quarter of a percentage point instead of half a percentage point, while the Millionaires Tax would not include a sales tax increase.
If voters reject Brown’s initiative in November, the UC and CSU will each be faced with a $200 million cut, according to Brown’s January budget plan.
Several students spoke at Tuesday’s event in Oakland, including Honest Chung, a UC Berkeley senior who is running for ASUC president with Students for a Democratic University. Chung encouraged campus activism in support of the initiative.
“Neither Republicans nor Democrats are our friends or allies of public education,” Chung said. “At the university level, people don’t understand the power they have.”
Mustafa Popal, a teacher at the College of Alameda, said he opposes Brown’s proposed sales tax increase because it would affect those who have already suffered from the economic crisis.
“We didn’t create this crisis, and we shouldn’t be paying for it,” he said.
A March 7 poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that just 52 percent of likely voters supported Brown’s original initiative.
Dana Blanchard, member of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said she supports the Millionaires Tax because it would reserve 60 percent of its revenue for public education, with 24 percent of the revenue split equally between community colleges, California State University and the University of California.
“Part of what people want to see is accountability,” she said.
The Millionaires Tax initiative must gather 800,000 signatures in order to make it onto the November ballot, and supporters hope to raise 450,000 signatures before the deadline in eight weeks, according to Blanchard.
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
“Obama has not screwed over our economy and educational system as much as Bush.”
Oh, really? Can you name a single metric where economic performance under Obama has been better than Bush? Inflation? Unemployment? Gas Prices? Number of people on food stamps? Number of children living in poverty in the US? All those numbers have gotten WORSE under Obama.
Get your head out of your ass, and get a clue. Obama’s economic plan is a massive failure.
Mustafa Popal said …“We didn’t create this crisis, and we shouldn’t be paying for it”
Mustafa is wrong. He did participate in creating this fiscal crisis. California’s main problem is the housing bubble. Banks and millionaires did not create fictional homebuyers. Low income people hoping to make a quick profit signed up for mortgages they knew they could not possibly pay, which eventually caused the subprime mortgage market to crash. Now the low income people are looking with envy at Google and Facebook pre-IPO millionaires and blaming them for California’s fiscal crisis. When did achieving the American Dream become a liability?
As an Afro-Cuban American I also have come up with a 2012 initiative for California. The Millionaires leave California for a better state that has more reasonable people, lol. I lived in California my whole life and am so happy I left. I have never seen so many pseudo liberals and intellectuals in one society like Berkeley , Ca. The occupy movement a joke. I know that the occupy movement in Berkeley, ca had an all black section in there camp, can we say oxymorons.
I personally know 3 people who worked at Goldman Sachs making over 250k a year who moved to Texas due to income tax benefits. Just sayin
I fell bad for people like Dana who is mentioned in the article. She thinks that this measure will increase revenues going to the schools. That is just like how people thought lottery money would mostly go to the schools. The reality is that the legislature will let that revenue go to the schools, but they will take out prior revenue that was allocated to the schools, and send it someplace else. The schools won’t gain. They will have flat funding levels or more cuts as other programs get more money. The legislature would much rather pay union pensions than pay for education.
Plus, this would never generate the billions in income it claims. Anyone who would really face a tax increase would already have a primary residence in another state where they pay their taxes. That is why the nice houses are on the Nevada side of Tahoe.
This tax will do nothing to reduce the state budget deficit. It’s just a massive redistribution of wealth from the private sector to public employee unions.
F*** the unions.
It does NOT go to the unions, Einstein, 99% goes to the public employees represented by unions (faculty have one too called the Academic Senate)– such as your current instructors and lab directors and advisers and the staff who prepare your meals and clean your toilet if you live the dorms, etc. It COULD go to reduce the tuition you pay, if so many students weren’t as brainwashed by right-wing wingnuts as you apparently are. Think we’d be better off without unions– take a look at Mississippi, the direction people like you a trying to push the entire nation. Forget higher education. Mississippi has a proud heritage of hatred towards public education.
Yeah those prison guards making $150,000 definitely need a raise and even more gold plating on their pension plans! F*** those peons in the private sector who have to save money in a 401(k). Tax the private sector to guarantee ever more outrageous retirement benefits to the public employee unions!!
“Median annual wages of correctional officers and jailers were $38,380 in
May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $29,660 and $51,000.
The lowest 10 percent earned less than $25,300, and the highest 10
percent earned more than $64,110. Median annual wages in the public
sector were $50,830 in the Federal Government, $38,850 in State
government, and $37,510 in local government. In the facilities support
services industry, where the relatively small number of officers
employed by privately operated prisons is classified, median annual
wages were $28,790.”
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos156.htm
So because a few prison guards get paid 150k to do a shitty, dangerous job you get pissed? What about the CEOs and execs who DO a shitty job…on the economy and get paid 100x+ than this? Blind eyes, huh…
I know this will come as a shock to you, but the taxpayers don’t pay the salaries of CEOs and executives, who are hired by the boards of directors for private companies, with compensation packages determined by those same directors, and paid out of those company funds. You don’t pay their salaries, so you have NO right to determine what they should and should not make. OTOH, public employees work for the taxpayers, and are paid for by taxpayer funds. Therefore, the taxpayers have EVERY right to have a voice in who is hired, and at what rate of compensation. Thanks for this opportunity to straighten you out on a few things you clearly do not understand.
Five-STARS for the Millionaire Tax Initiative created by the people for the people.
Hard working California residents who want to protect our public education system, services for children and elderly, public safety personnel and our states infrastructure.
And they won’t be fooled by good old Jerry Brown, who pretended to care, about the people who voted for him.
So how’s driving off the people with the money going to solve the tax revenue problem in this state?
Why is it that so few Liberals show up on the comments section?
libsrclowns, old Tony, and the penguin
Spewed forth in a bilious oration
They forgot what their daddies
Once told to their laddies
”Always practice DISCRETE masturbation!”
Silly little child
can’t deal with facts or logic
and your limericks suck
Tony,
My guess is that s/he is responding more to your endless steam of puerile ravings (“dumb bunnies”, “clueless idiots”, etc.) than to your “facts” & “logic”.
My guess that you have a gender identity issue, and can’t make up your mind if you are posting as Clavdia or Hans. Yawn…
While California Governor Moonbeam promises strong economic growth is just around the corner, most economists know that the best way for Sacramento politicians to hurt the economy and thereby generate lower tax revenue, is to have the highest tax rates in the nation.
California politicians seem delusional in their continued belief that high taxes have not savaged the State’s economy. Each month’s disappointment is written off as due to some one-time event.
Lesson for Cal Kiddies: Vote SACTO Libs out and save the Cali economy and UC.
1) Citations, please! Opinions do not count as facts…even in a conservative’s world.
2) California has a comparatively high tax rate with the rest of the country. The country has a comparatively low tax rate with the rest of the world. Most “socialist” European countries and otherwise that have a more balanced tax structure enjoy a higher standard of living, even with vastly smaller economies. Plus, it’s not democracy if a very small proportion of people have a disproportionate amount of control over others.
http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf
” Most “socialist” European countries and otherwise that have a more
balanced tax structure enjoy a higher standard of living, even with
vastly smaller economies”
Most of those “socialist” EU countries are broke, and facing even worse financial crises than here in California. Where the hell have you been?
Excuse me, but actually 9 European countries (UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland) still hold AAA credit ratings from S&P (better than the US can say), and the countries in real trouble only account for 6% of the Eurozone’s GDP. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-euro-s-pig-headed-masters
So while you can say that the US is being brought down by places like Mississippi, Europe has its own “Mississippi” and is not doing bad overall. Plus, they don’t send their citizens out to die in the street when they run out of money to pay the medical bills, so there’s that…
Plus, one could also hypothesize that a more globalized financial market along with the early 2000s bubble caused the worldwide (Europe being part of the world) economic downturn, and thus the more socialized Eurozone was basically “infected” by toxicity from other areas. Just a theory though.
The US is being brought down by Obama:
Obama’s economic record….FAIL,
yet Clowns posting here continually defend him.
Every day, the Obama’s government takes in $6 billion and spends $10 billion. This means that every day the Ofraudo spends $4 billion more dollars than he takes in.
The real unemployment rate is a jaw-dropping 11 percent. After almost 3 years, Oclown is still clueless.
Every fifth adult you pass on your way to work is now out of work thanks to Ofraudo’s failed policies.
College graduates are now 34% less likely to find a job under Oclownie than they were under President George W. Bush.
Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk now relies on food stamps.
The ravages of the Obongo economy now mean that more Americans live under the federal poverty line than at any time in U.S. history since records have been kept.
Under The Empty Suit in Chief, every fifth child in America now lives in poverty.
During the 3year reign of Oclownie the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 109 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A recent CBS poll found 80% said they were not better off under Obama.
Obama has not screwed over our economy and educational system as much as Bush. Look at the No Child Left Behind Act, it takes away funding from under performing schools, this has stagnated the educational system and has forced many minorities to settle for low quality education.
”Plus, one could also hypothesize that a more globalized financial market along with the early 2000s bubble”
Or, given that we had a reasonably decent economy under Bush (moderate inflation and unemployment), that Obama’s reckless “stimulus plan” has diverted money into the pockets of Obama’s supporters that would otherwise be used for solid investment. How about that?
Your citation doesn’t indicate that most European countries enjoy a higher standard of living. Just a hand full, and those are only ranked higher because the US includes some areas that drag it down. If California was looked at as a country, there would hardly be any other countries that would have a higher standard of living.
Pubs…
http://capoliticalnews.com/2012/03/14/exodus-ca-tax-revenue-plunges-by-22/
So you want to be like socialist Europe? Depart the USA Clownboy.
LOL @ Libs
I would love you to define socialism libsrclowns. Please humor me with your right wing interpretation of it.
Socialism = redistribution of wealth.
I wonder if these people know about capital flight. All this is going to do is make wealthy Californians relocate their place of residency to Nevada, Arizona, or any other state with low income tax. The thing about wealthy people is that they are usually pretty good and even though they will still be “living” in California the state will lose out on all the tax revenue instead of getting even more
MAKE EM FLY!!! That way they won’t be able to pay in state tuition for their children… (hahah how do you like a $100,000 undergraduate degree mom and dad) At this rate, rich sons and daughters are fast becoming the only kids able to attend california “public” university anyway.
Education must be a right and responsibility for everyone in a civilized society! Let’s make it attainable, c’mon people
You do realize that when they “fly”, they will be flying to AZ, TX and other states where they won’t be paying California income taxes, right? Or are you even capable of thinking that far ahead?
The 1% you despise so much pays 1/3 of the individual income taxes in this country already. That’s far more than the bottom 50%, which pays only 3-4% of all individual income taxes. You and the rest of the clueless children act like they aren’t paying anything now, when nothing is further from the truth.
The usual dumb bunnies. Have any of them ever held a real job?
Yes.
Yes, if you consider professional activism and shit-stirring to be a real job.
No, otherwise.