Gov. Jerry Brown brought his Yes on 30 campaign back to San Diego Tuesday. It was his second swing through the city to promote the measure to increase sales and income taxes for schools at Barrio Logan’s Perkins Elementary.
Funds raised from the measure’s four-year quarter-cent sales tax increase and seven-year income tax hike on Californians earning more than $250,00 a year would go to meeting the state’s school funding guarantee. San Diego city school leaders and leading Democrats joined Brown to promote the proposition.
State Assemblyman Ben Hueso said Perkins draws in students from homeless shelters in the neighborhood, who are "disadvantaged in every sense of the word."
He said cuts to other state services that support low-income families hurt these children in the classroom and that "Prop 30 addresses that."
"It's the right initiative to make sure every Californian has a shot at moving up the ladder socially and achieving the American Dream," he said.
Brown said a "Yes" vote means steady school funding, while a "No" vote means a nearly $6 billion cut to education. He says the measure is the next step in his plan to balance the budget.
“I found a $27 billion deficit," he said, referring to when he returned to the governor's office. "And I’ve been cutting and hacking and slashing and doing everything I can – even really good programs. And now I don’t think we should cut anymore – I think we need more revenue.”
Proposition 30’s detractors, which include the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, have said the state has not cut enough. They point to projects like the high-speed rail and only superficial reforms to state employee pensions as evidence that the legislature’s budget priorities are out of whack.