California: Gov. Brown Leads Effort to Raise Sales Tax with Ballot Measure
Sacramento — In his first year back as California’s leader, Gov. Jerry Brown was unable to get what he wanted.
Voters returned Brown to the Capitol for a third term after he campaigned as a seasoned, no-nonsense veteran who knew how to get things done. But Brown didn’t anticipate how much Capitol politics had changed in his 28-yearabsence.
He re-entered office last January pushing a plan to allow Californians to decide whether to raise taxes or face further cuts to government services. The effort failed because the governor did not get a handful of necessary Republican votes to place a tax measure on the ballot.