Support slips for Gov Brown’s tax measure

By annalise mantz · Daily Trojan

Posted October 25, 2012 at 11:18 pm in News, Politics

Support for Propositions 30 and Proposition 37 is falling among California voters, according to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll released Thursday.

Only 46 percent of respondents said they were in favor of Prop. 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, marking the first time support has fallen below the 50 percent margin. Prop. 37, which would require foods containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled, dropped to garnering 44 percent support from California voters.

Prop. 30, which would raise revenue for public education and public safety by temporarily increasing the state sales tax by one-quarter cent and raising personal income taxes on citizens who earn more than $250,000 a year, has continually declined in the polls from a level of 61 percent support in March. Experts, such as Dan Schnur, the director of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll and the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, attributed this decrease in support to the public perception of the state government.

“Governor Brown has successfully convinced voters that more spending on the state’s public schools is a good thing,” Schnur said. “What he has yet to do is convince them that state government can be trusted to spend their tax dollars wisely.”

Additionally, Drew Lieberman of the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, which helped conduct the poll, said that though voters want to protect education, they do not have enough trust in the measure.

“Nobody likes to cut education,” Lieberman said, “but there is a lack of trust as to how the money will be allocated.”

Schnur also said a large amount of negative advertising by proponents of Prop. 38, the direct competitor with Prop. 30, could have hurt its approval. Similarly, experts said negative messaging directed at Prop. 37 knocked it down in the polls.

“The most significant driving force behind this shift is the amount of money that the opposition has put into the campaign,” Schnur wrote on the Dornsife website. “When voters hear a message so much more strongly from one side than the other, it’s not surprising to see the poll numbers move like this.”

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is conducted at regular intervals. The poll, which was conducted by Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Republican polling firm American Viewpoint, surveyed 1,504 registered California voters.

Comments are closed.

More News

  Daily Trojan Spring Awakening Supplement

Blogs

Daily Trojan Poll

Which headliner did you enjoy most at Springfest?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Archives

October 2012
S M T W T F S
« Sep   Nov »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Browse Archives

News

SPECIAL FEATURE: Prof loses tenure bid after appeal

On April 3, Assistant Professor of International Relations Mai’a Keapuolani Davis Cross, who had traveled cross-country from her tenure track position at Colgate University to ...

Center to host more concerts after deal with Nederlander

The Galen Center entered into a deal last week with Nederlander Concerts, a Los Angeles-based company that organizes concerts with venues, to increase the numbers ...

Annenberg creates community pay phones

A group of USC students, community members and local artists in Leimert Park are bringing the pay phone back into service — and hoping to ...

Opinion

’SC sets example in lowering dropout rate

A report sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reveals that the nation’s higher education system is facing a dropout crisis. Produced in part ...

Should the Guantánamo Bay prison remain open?

The prison must be closed as it stands for hypocrisy and infringes upon international human rights.  One hundred of the total 166 inmates at the Guantánamo ...

The Internet celebrates 20th birthday

Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of World Wide Web. The organization responsible for building the Internet, CERN, also created the Large Hadron ...

Sports

Trojans begin three-game homestand against TCU

As the USC baseball team enters the final month of its baseball season 11 games under .500, it can at least feel good that it ...

USC faces North Florida in first round of tournament

For the No. 4 USC women’s sand volleyball team, its entire season has led up to this tournament. The team will finally be put to the ...

Jovan, Monica Vavic earn league awards

When it comes to dominating the competition in the pool, nobody does it better than the Vavic family. Following a season in which head coach ...

Lifestyle

An Exercise in Authenticity

Though Generation Um…includes a star studded cast—Keanu Reeves, Bojana Novakovic, and Adelaide Clemens—this film surprisingly has more of an indie vibe.  Set in New York ...

History behind shakes

Though finals loom as obstacles between now and summer, Ground Zero Performance Café has the perfect solution for both cooling down and serving your study ...

Play creates darker version of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale

Before Disney’s Peter, Wendy, John and Michael flew over “poor Nana” toward Big Ben and continued to the second star to the right and straight ...

Photos

In Photos: Washington comes to USC

In Photos: Washington comes to USC

The Schwarzenegger Institute held an immigration reform forum titled "Washington comes to USC", with U.S Senators John McCain, Michael Bennet and former President of Mexico ...

In Photos: Armenian Genocide

Photos by Ani Kolangian [gallery link="file" ids="66554,66555,66556,66557,66558,66559,66560,66561,66562"]

In Photos: Springfest 2013

Photos by Priyanka Patel. [gallery link="file" ids="65587,65586,65585,65584,65583,65582,65581,65580,65579,65578,65577,65576"]