Gov. Jerry Brown standing in front of L.A. business leaders earlier this year.

Brown wants to raise income taxes on individuals making more than $250,000 and joint filers making more than $500,000. He failed to convince the Legislature to either approve a series of tax extensions or at least pass the decision onto voters. So now Brown wants to get the tax hike proposal on the ballot next year by gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures.

Will the Occupiers be among the first to sign on? Will they help labor unions gather signatures and then press for voters to approve the taxes if it does in fact make the ballot?

Standing in the way of Occupy L.A., Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Sacramento, Occupy Santa Cruz and the others could be all the divisions between the Occupiers.

There's plenty who want to tax the rich even more, and there's others who want to get rid of taxes altogether. Either way, everyone might have the Occupy movement sized up wrong if they don't mobilize politically to seize a victory by helping Brown's tax plan pass.

Granted, the tax would likely hit a wider group than just the 1 percent because the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians earn an average of $2.3 million, according to the California Budget Project. And Brown's proposal reportedly adds a half-cent back to the state sales tax, which dropped a cent back in July. That would affect nearly everyone in the state.

The higher taxes would raise an estimated $7 billion, potentially restoring major cuts to everything from higher education to care for seniors.

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