New ad targets Jerry Brown’s tax plan

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Opponents of Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, Proposition 30, have launched a new television ad, again calling the measure an effort to mislead voters.

The ad features a mother in a kitchen with her two children telling the camera, “We all want better schools, so Prop. 30 seemed ok.”

But the ad goes on to say that the money raised from the initiative’s temporary hike on sales and upper incomes can be used to “fund other programs in the state budget … but not a penny guaranteed to the classroom.”

While not all of the money raised from the initative will go to education, public schools and community colleges receive about 40 cents of every dollar the state spends, under constitutional spending formulas approved by voters in the 1980s. Schools would receive their share of the estimated $6 billion raised by Proposition 30, unless two-thirds of the Legislature opt to suspend those education spending formulas.

The new ad comes as Gov. Brown has begun a barnstorming tour of the state in support of his tax plan, which is facing a tough fight according to public opinion surveys. After weeks of silence on the measure, Brown has been aggressively touring the state in the last week trying to rally support for the initiative.

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--Anthony York in Sacramento