Governor faces hurdle promoting new taxes as ratings slip

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / June 8, 2012

Gov. Jerry Brown isn't as popular with California voters as he was four months ago, according to a Field Poll released Friday, indicating the governor may have a hard time persuading voters to approve his tax measure in November.

Brown, who has a 43 percent approval rating, is still much more popular than lawmakers. The Legislature's dismal 19 percent approval rating has declined slightly since February but is still not as low as the Field Poll record of 10 percent in September 2010.

The survey indicates a tough fight ahead for Brown, who is working to persuade voters to increase sales and income taxes in November as part of his plan to balance the state budget. The Field Poll found the governor is not trusted by a large number of voters - 43 percent - to do what is right to resolve the state's $15.7 billion budget shortfall.

Brown's ratings, which peaked in September at 49 percent, have been steadily slipping ever since.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/08/MNEI1OUG1O.DTL

Ratings slip -- likely thanks to Repuke lies. Let's be clear, the income tax increase is targeted at top earners. I think any sane individual could support this. I'd rather the sales tax increase be more of "luxury tax" for goods valued at, say, over $100,000. But I'll support it because it's for the greater good.

[KamaAina]

1. If the tax measure fails, we're Florida with lower humidity

the resulting cuts to education could mean shortening the school year in many districts that are already against the wall as it is.

I'm not at all sure his ratings drop is entirely due to repuke lies, though. A lot of it likely comes from the left, which sees him as hell-bent on forcing cuts to social services rather than trying to squeeze even a tiny amount of revenue out of the repuke turnip.