The following is a news release from the office of Supervisor Jeff Stone, whose third district includes Murrieta and Temecula:
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Oct. 16 voted to oppose Prop. 30, a measure championed by Gov. Jerry Brown aimed at easing the state budget crisis by raising sales taxes and personal income-tax rates.
Supervisor Jeff Stone, who brought the question about the proposition before the Board of Supervisors, said the state is still mired in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The proposition would raise taxes at a time when Californians can least afford it, he said.
“It’s going to hit them right in the pocketbook today,” Stone said.
Stone argued Tuesday that Brown has not done enough to cut the state budget, either by reducing the number of state employees or by having employees pay their fair share of pension costs. Those kinds of actions would have dramatically helped the state deal with its multibillion dollar budget crisis, Stone said.
“If we vote for this tax we are going to endorse the irresponsible budgetary and economic policies of the current administration,” he said. “And they won’t stop here. If they get away with this tax there will be another tax on the next ballot.”
Several supervisors agreed with many of Stone’s concerns about raising taxes when the state has not adequately reduced costs or reformed its pension system. But some mentioned the need for the measure’s constitutional provisions, which would guarantee ongoing funding for realignment, the process used to shift responsibility for many state programs to counties. Supervisors voted in the majority to oppose the proposition, with Supervisors Bob Buster and John J. Benoit abstaining, in part because of concerns about the measure’s important realignment provisions and the timing of the vote so close to the Nov. 6 election.
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