California voters are willing to to tax the rich — and themselves — to prop up education, and believe that even with billions in extra dollars, the state doesn’t spend enough on schools, a new poll shows.
In a poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, a solid majority — 62 percent — of likely voters supported extending for 12 years Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 income tax increase on individuals earning over $250,000 to pay for education and health care. An initiative being circulated by teachers unions and health care organizations would put that proposal before voters in November.
State voters passed Proposition 30 in 2012 to avert about $6 billion in cuts to education. The measure created three higher income-tax brackets for taxpayers earning $250,000 or more and raised the sales tax by one-quarter of 1 percent for four years — together raising an estimated $8 billion this fiscal year. The proposed initiative would continue only the supplemental income tax, generating from $5 billion to $11 billion annually in 2019, the first year it would take effect, according to the legislative analyst.
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