Fleischman sketches campaign against Brown tax increase

July 31, 2012

By John Seiler

Over at Flashreport, Jon Fleischman summarized the arguments the anti-Proposition 30 campaign will be using:

* If there is money to waste on high speed rail — why raise taxes?

* If there is money to drop on giving raises to legislative staffers – why raise taxes?

* If you can’t even keep track of over $50 million that you already have – why raise taxes?

* If there is enough money to publicly subsidize sporting arenas – why raise taxes?

All these stories have been copiously reported. And you can imagine the visuals. How about a taxpayer in a business suit being tackled by a 350-lb. linebacker, the taxpayer’s bones audibly broken and his face covered with dirt and blood? The number on the linebacker’s jersey? “Prop. 30.”

California’s government is so dysfunctional, beginning at the top with Gov. Moonbeam, that it can’t stay on the message that the state supposedly is broke and needs increases in “revenue,” as Brown’s first tax-increase video put it. Even they’re afraid of the T-word: “taxes.”

It’s going to be a fun campaign and the state economy will benefit both from defeating Prop. 30 and the tens of millions of dollars the government-worker unions will blow trying to pass it.