SACRAMENTO — Taxing the rich more to benefit others isn’t a new idea, but it has emerged in recent weeks as a potential solution as California tries to salvage its public education system from deep budget cuts.
Public schools escaped the first round of budget actions that shaved $11.2 billion off the state’s $26.6 billion deficit in March. But they have been threatened with billions of dollars in cuts since Gov. Jerry Brown failed to persuade Republican lawmakers to support a special election calling for a renewal of expiring tax increases.
If those tax hikes are not extended, Democrats say thousands of teachers will lose their jobs, the school year will be shortened, class sizes will increase and even more programs will be reduced or eliminated. It’s not clear whether enough Republicans will sign on to that plan in time for a special election this year, or even if voters would approve.
Idea has support
What voters do seem to support are higher taxes on the rich.
“The average voter inclination is to go to the wealthy because they can afford it,” said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California. “That has traditionally been among their favorite solutions to deal with the state budget shortfall.”
The institute released a poll in April showing that most California adults want to save schools by increasing taxes — just not on themselves. Among likely voters, 62 percent oppose raising the sales tax and 66 percent oppose raising the overall income tax — the options preferred by the governor and Democratic lawmakers. But 62 percent say state leaders should tax the top income bracket.
This is the first year Baldassare has seen that solution linked to education funding. Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, has a bill to make that happen.
Her AB1130 would tack another 1 percent onto the tax rate of any taxable income higher than $500,000, applying to single and joint tax filers. Skinner, who will present the legislation to committee Monday — the same day Gov. Brown will release his revised budget — estimates it would bring the general fund an extra $2.3 billion each year from 30,000 filers.
‘Their fair share’
“The wealthy should pay their fair share; it wouldn’t affect them that much,” said Joshua Pechthalt, incoming president of the California Federation of Teachers.
The union supports Skinner’s legislation. The state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association, coordinated a statewide series of protests this week over looming education budget cuts but has not taken a position on the proposed wealth tax.
Instead, it supports the Democrats’ plan to extend for five years the increases enacted two years ago to the personal income, sales and vehicle taxes. Those tax increases are scheduled to expire by June 30.
Preliminary pink slips already have been issued to 20,000 teachers and other school employees. While many of them ultimately will retain their jobs, the number of pink slips illustrates the uncertainty over school funding levels for the coming year.
Skinner said AB1130 returns fairness to the tax structure by using the rates that were in place under former governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson. It ensures that families making $60,000 a year do not pay the same tax rates as those making $600,000 a year.
Skinner said she hopes to advance the bill from committee but said, “Achieving a two-thirds vote on the floor is a whole other question.”
