Rick Jacobs on Conan Nolan’s NBC4 Show “News Conference”
The Millionaires Tax has the best chance of passing, explained Rick Jacobs, chair and founder of the Courage Campaign to news anchor Conan Nolan on NBC4's "News Conference," Southern California's longest running political and public affairs interview program on Sunday morning.
The money that would be raised from the popular tax measure, up to $9.5 billion according to official estimates, would go directly toward the services Californians want to restore: education, public safety, elderly care, roads and bridges.
A Millionaire for the Millionaires Tax!
On Wednesday, four seperate rallies were held in Fresno, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego to launch the start of grassroots signature gathering for the Millionaires Tax and highlight the local benefits of the measure. At the event in Oakland, Frank Jernigan -- a software engineer who lived as a member of the 99% for the first 59 years of his life --spoke of his sudden transformation to the 1%. He was lucky enough to land a job at Google while it was still a start-up.
Hear his story and why he supports the Millionaires Tax by watching the video below.
Commuters Can’t Miss The Millionaires Tax of 2012!
Freeway blogging! This morning at 8 freeway overpass locations all over California volunteers held giant signs touting the Millionaires Tax of 2012. This included Richmond (seen below) through which hundreds of thousands of commuters pass on their way into San Francisco.
Media from all over the state, including ABC News, have covered the banners and the powerful message behind them: Our tax code needs to reflect the interests of middle-class Californians, not the special interests of corporate CEOs and their lobbyists. Now is the time to revamp our tax code here in California so it's fair to the 99% of us who play by the rules, not just the 1% who lobby hard and re-write the rules.
Banners were held for 2-3 hours in Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, Davis, Santa Cruz, San Diego, Oakland, Richmond, and San Diego. During the afternoon rush hour, a banner will fly in Fresno. All together, it's safe to say we've helped educate hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions about the Millionaires Tax of 2012. Not bad for a day's work! (A compilation of photos from around the state is available here.)
Independent poll shows Millionaires Tax at 70%
A recent, independent poll found the Millionaires Tax leads the pack of ballot initiatives with 70% of voters saying they'd vote for it. The results from the poll, published here at CalBuzz, reaffirm what our coalition’s polling has said all along –- our tax measure has the best chance of actually passing. The poll was conducted by FM3, a political consulting firm.
Millionaires Tax of 2012 garners nationwide media coverage
It's the video everyone's talking about: our video explaining how millionaires like Kim Kardashian pay just 1% more in taxes than a middle-class Californian making $47,000. From late December 2011 to January 2012, the video has been featured by over 400 media outlets worldwide, including:
CNN
ABC World News with Diane Sawyer
Associated Press
CBS News Moneywatch
Wall Street Journal
Los Angeles Times
CBS The Early Show
Fox News
The Huffington Post
Forbes
New York Magazine
PerezHilton.com
USA Today
San Francisco Chronicle
In addition, Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs and Michael Bridges were interviewed on ABC World News and CNN, respectively, on the evening of Wednesday, January 4th. You can find those clips in the links above.
Join the growing movement to pass the Millionaires Tax of 2012 by signing up in the upper right corner!
Conservative political pundits lash out at Millionaires Tax ad starring Kim Kardashian
Pundits and editorial writers at The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and other conservative media outlets are attacking an online viral video created to support the Millionaires Tax of 2012 and starring reality television star Kim Kardashian. The video (seen below) was created to educate the public about California's unfair tax system and reveals that Ms. Kardashian only pays one percentage point more in state income taxes than a middle-class Californian.
Conservative opinion makers have repeatedly cited right-wing tax myths, including here and here, claiming that an increase in state income taxes on millionaires will cause the wealthy to move to other states. This widely-held and factually inaccurate belief might be appropriate for another reality television show: Myth Busters. These pundits will only get more agitated when they read the multiple studies that show no correllation between millionaires taxes and migration, such as:
- Tax Flight Is a Myth: Higher State Taxes Bring More Revenue, Not More Migration by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
- Millionaire Migration and State Taxation of Top Incomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment a study by researchers from Stanford and Princeton,
- and The Number of High-Income Tax Earners Increased Significantly During a Period of 10% and 11% Tax Rates on High Income Earners by the California Budget Project.
The Restoring California Coalition would like to sincerely thank Ms. Kim Kardashian. She has brought unprecedented attention to California's unfair tax system and helped educate reality television fans about what can be done to start fixing California. Perhaps the right-wing's desperate attacks on the Millionaires Tax of 2012 are due to its remarkable popularity. It currently polls at 67% and will only need a simple majority to become law in November 2012.
The Basics of the Millionaires Tax
What is it? A statewide ballot measure that asks Californians who make over $1 million per year to pay a little bit more to invest in California after years of devastating cuts.
Why do we need it? Since 2008, budget cuts have led to big increases in K-12 class sizes, nearly a doubling of community and state college tuition, and billions in cuts to essential services for children and seniors.
What does it do? It asks those making more than $1 million a year in personal income to pay their fair share in taxes so we can raise an estimated $6 billion to begin:
- re-hiring laid off teachers to reduce class sizes,
- restoring college classes and student services,
- restoring cuts to essential services for children, seniors, and people who are disabled,
- re-hiring laid off emergency responders,
- and creating jobs by repairing roads and bridges.
Who's behind it? A coalition of educators, parents, and community groups working together to restore California's middle class.
If you'd like to read the official ballot measure language click here.
Click here to see how the Millionaires Tax of 2012 compares with other proposed tax initiatives.