Koch-Backed Group Targets California Republicans in Tax Fight
A pro-Republican group backed by billionaire David Koch is paying for radio ads criticizing two California Republican state senators who’ve negotiated with Democratic Governor Jerry Brown on a proposed tax referendum.
The Koch-backed advocacy group Americans for Prosperity began running the ads today in the Central Valley farming districts represented by Tom Berryhill of Modesto and Anthony Cannella of Merced. The ads urge listeners to call the senators and tell them to oppose Brown’s plan.
Brown is seeking legislative approval for a June referendum on extending sales, income and vehicle-tax increases set to expire that month. The tax plan is a linchpin of Brown’s effort to eliminate what was a $26.6 billion budget deficit projected through June 2012. Berryhill and Cannella are among five Republican senators who have been negotiating with him.
“The governor and the Legislature here in California are trying to pass tax increases and we want to make sure that legislators in certain areas understand that they need to stand up for taxpayers,” said Meredith Turney, a spokeswoman for Americans for Prosperity California, which is based in Camarillo. Americans for Prosperity supported Wisconsin’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, in his drive to curb collective bargaining for most unionized government workers.
Koch Industries
David Koch is executive vice president of Koch Industries Inc., a closely held energy and chemical company based in Wichita, Kansas. He is the chairman of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, according to 2009 Internal Revenue Service records posted on the website of GuideStar, an organization that compiles information on nonprofit groups.
Koch Industries and its employees and subsidiaries spent $1.2 million in the last election helping to elect Republican governors, according to Common Cause, a Washington-based advocacy group.
“Senator Cannella’s first and foremost commitment is to serve and represent his constituents in the 12th Senate District,” his spokeswoman, Jessica Hsiang, said in a statement about the ads’ criticism. “The votes he casts as their representative in Sacramento will be reflective of their shared priorities: job creation and economic growth.”
Nicole Mazur, a spokeswoman for Berryhill, declined to comment.
Brown has said he’s not raising taxes, just asking voters to keep higher taxes in place for five more years to close a $15 billion budget gap without deeper cuts to services including education and public safety. He and Democrats already approved $8 billion of cuts and $3 billion of loans and transfers to help ease the deficit.
While Democrats control both chambers of the California Legislature, they fall short of a two-thirds majority to put the measure on the ballot. Brown would need to coax at least four Republicans into supporting his plan to reach that supermajority.
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Marois in Sacramento at mmarois@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
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