Poll Finds Support for Governor’s Plans To Hike Taxes, Adjust Pensions

Most California voters support Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) proposals to temporarily raise some income and sales taxes and increase state employees' share of pension contributions, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, the Ventura County Star reports (Herdt, Ventura County Star, 12/12).

To conduct the poll, the institute interviewed 2,003 adult residents by phone between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5. Findings on Brown's tax proposal are based on interviews with 1,012 adults from Dec. 2 to Dec. 5. Of the total sample size, the survey identified 901 individuals as likely voters (PPIC release, 12/12).

Key Findings

According to the poll, 60% of likely voters said they supported Brown's tax proposal. The proposal would generate $7 billion annually in revenue by increasing income taxes for five years for people earning more than $250,000 per year and raising the sales tax by a half-cent through 2017. Brown aims to put the proposal on the November 2012 ballot (Ventura County Star, 12/12).

Meanwhile, 70% of surveyed adults support Brown's proposal to increase pension plan contributions for current and new public employees (Gardner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/12).

Sixty-eight percent said newly hired employees should be placed in a 401(k)-style plan instead of a defined pension plan.

In addition, the poll found that 45% of likely voters said a mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes should be used to address the state budget deficit, and 33% said spending cuts primarily should be used to address the shortfall (Ventura County Star, 12/12).

Broadcast Coverage

On Monday, Capital Public Radio reported on the support among likely voters for the governor's proposed tax measure (Adler, Capital Public Radio, 12/12).