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Tax Initiative Enters Circulation

Tax to Benefit Public Schools, Social Services,
Public Safety, and Road Maintenance. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

TAX TO BENEFIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SOCIAL SERVICES, PUBLIC SAFETY, AND ROAD MAINTENANCE. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Adds 3 percent to personal income tax rate on annual earnings over $1,000,000; adds 5 percent for earnings over $2,000,000. Allocates new revenues as follows: 36 percent for K-12 schools, 24 percent for public colleges and universities, 25 percent for services to children and senior citizens, 10 percent for public safety, and 5 percent for road and bridge maintenance. Provides local governments discretion to decide, subject to financial audits, how to spend new funds, except funds cannot go toward capital outlay or certain administrative costs. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased state personal income tax revenues dedicated to public universities, school districts, community college districts, and other local public services. Estimates of the revenue increases vary—for 2012-13, from $6 billion to $9.5 billion and for 2013-14, from $4 billion to $6 billion. These revenues would tend to grow in later years. (11-0091.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1565 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 11-0091.

The proponent for this measure, Joshua Pechthalt, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters – the number equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by July 2, 2012.

The initiative proponent can be reached at (916) 446-2788.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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