Prop 29 in California, which would impose a $1 per pack tax hike on cigarettes, is on the edge of defeat. Per this LA Times story, as of last night, Prop 29 is down by 63,000 votes, but there are still ballots to be counted. Why would one of the most liberal states in the country balk at a tax hike? Check out the comments from Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.
“Californians are not anti-government,” he said. “But they want value for their tax dollars, and they perceive correctly that they are not getting that in Sacramento.”
Taxpayers have soured on expensive new ventures that promise economic windfalls and easier daily lives, he said. They remember, he said, approving a $3-billion bond measure for stem-cell research, only to hear that outsized salaries were being collected by executives running the program. He said they remember passing a $9-billion state bond measure in 2008 to build a high-speed rail network, a project that has seen costs and roadblocks multiply.
By the way, California is billions in the hole and Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing hiking the sales tax and income tax for the highest earners.
