SAN FRANCISCO
Strong majorities of Californians favor Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed tax initiative and oppose the automatic cuts that public schools will face if voters fail to approve the measure in November. These are among the key findings of a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), with funding from The James Irvine Foundation.
The initiative would temporarily increase the state sales tax and the personal income taxes of wealthy Californians, with the new revenue going to K–12 education. When read a summary, 72 percent of adults and 68 percent of likely voters favor the proposal. (The survey was taken before the attorney general released the measure’s official title and summary language.) Eighty-five percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents favor the tax increase. Republicans are slightly more likely to favor (53%) than oppose it (46%). If the initiative fails, Brown says there will be automatic cuts to public schools. Seventy-nine percent of adults and 75 percent of likely voters oppose these trigger cuts, as do strong majorities of Democrats (83%), Republicans (67%), and independents (67%).
The tax initiative and trigger cuts are part of the governor’s 2012-13 budget proposal designed to close a multibillion-dollar deficit. His plan also includes spending cuts in welfare, child care, Medi-Cal, and other social service programs.
When read a brief summary of Brown’s budget proposal that includes these elements, half of adults (50%) are in favor and 43 percent are opposed. Likely voters are split (48% favor, 46% oppose).
Californians hold these views at a time when most (62% adults, 60% likely voters) say their local government services have been affected a lot by recent state budget cuts. Most (55% adults, 59% likely voters) say that K–12 public education is the area of state spending they most want to protect from budget cuts. Far fewer adults choose one of the three other main areas of state spending: higher education (19%), health and human services (17%), and prisons and corrections (6%).
But while 40 percent of adults and likely voters prefer closing the state’s budget gap with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases—the approach Brown has proposed—similar proportions (35% adults, 41% likely voters) prefer closing it mainly through spending cuts. Indeed, Californians are far from happy with the way the state spends their money. Most (59% adults, 55% likely voters) believe state government could cut spending and still provide the same level of services. Most (59% adults, 62% likely voters) also favor strictly limiting the amount of money that state spending could increase each year.