"Proposition 30 is about debt," Romero says, "and it's on the ballot because of a dysfunctional Legislature that can't pass a budget with a two-thirds vote. The whole thing is a charade, and we continue to do budgeting by the ballot box."
Parent Revolution executive director Ben Austin, a player in education reform, who backs California's "parent trigger" law, charter schools and other innovations, usually is a close ally of Romero's. But he believes Proposition 30 will prevent major cuts to public schools. "We're supporters of both measures," he says, "but in a pragmatic way, Proposition 30 has a better chance of winning."
PHOTO BY NANETTE GONZALES
Jerry Brown's $6 billion to $8.5 billion tax measure has been hurt by his team's amateurish and self-inflicted mistakes.
PHOTO BY NANETTE GONZALES
Molly Munger and Steve English, at home in Pasadena: "We have a particular responsibility to give back," he says.
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Many folks focused on California's failing schools or classroom budget cuts don't care which measure wins — as long as one becomes law. Pasadena Unified School District board member Ed Honowitz is pulling for both, but for the long haul he favors Munger's initiative, which guarantees billions to schools over a 12-year period.
"It will have a much more significant impact on stabilizing finances and better funding education, which is something we always worry about," Honowitz says. "If neither of them pass, the impacts will be frightening."
But Wilcox, the Republican consultant, says that would be a good thing.
"If both lose, as I expect, then we might see the return of the 'real' Jerry Brown," Wilcox says. "I would be hopeful that the failures would unleash creativity, bold thinking and nontraditional coalitions — and Jerry Brown is as likely as anybody to lead those efforts. That would come more naturally to the governor than his desperate blackmail campaign that says, 'Raise your taxes — or the kids and students get it.' "
At a wooden conference table in the Echo Park offices of the Advancement Project, Munger sits down to explain her vision. No personal assistant or press aide is attending her, although she has both. She speaks without notes, and with a perpetual smile that seems to work as a shield when questions get too personal.
"This isn't about me," Munger says. "It's not about Jerry Brown the person. It's about the governor but in a more abstract way."
"I try to ignore it," she says of the increasingly conflict-oriented media coverage of the two competing tax measures. "Totally, I just try to ignore it."
Joel Fox is a mild-mannered Republican fiscal expert and anti-tax advocate who is chairman of the No on 30 campaign, president of the Small Business Action Committee and a blogger at FoxAndHoundsDaily.com. He's also, interestingly, an admirer of Molly Munger, whom he met through his friend Connie Rice.
As a conservative, Fox opposes Munger's ballot-box tax but thinks it's more coherent than Brown's. He finds Munger so interesting, in fact, that he has asked her to speak to his state and local government class at Pepperdine University.
"She is up against the California establishment — a sitting governor, the most powerful unions in the state and the Democratic majority machine," Fox says. "She has stood up against the machine, and I think this is just the beginning. I believe that even if she doesn't succeed this time — I don't know how deep her pockets go — she will be back. Remember, Howard Jarvis tried three times before the voters approved Proposition 13 [property tax reform]. Trying again is a California right."
Reilly T. Bates also contributed to this story.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
**An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that persons earning $1 million would pay $77,000 in new taxes.
