Gov. Jerry Brown's chief rival for passing a tax initiative on California's November ballot is not budging.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (Creative Commons)

Pasadena attorney Molly Munger is backing an ballot measure that would raise taxes on everyone making $7,000 a year in order to fund public education. It is in direct competition with Brown's own tax initiative, also backed by an influential teachers group, that would raise the state sales tax and shift the tax burden more onto higher earners. 

According to multiple reports, Brown told reporters in Sacramento that he had reached out to Munger to drop her ballot proposal. Evidently, she's not having it. Her new television spot not only touts her own initiative but takes a swipe at Brown's. 

Competition is not the only roadblock for the Governor's proposal, however. 

The latest poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows only a slim majority of voters supporting the original Brown plan. 

When Brown compromised with the California Federation of Teachers to create a more progressive tax plan, it may have made it less likely to pass. The deal lowered the proposed sales tax increase and ditched the CFT's "millionaires tax" idea while still increasing tax hikes on higher earners.  

Conservative commentator Tony Quinn writes on Fox & Hounds, "The new Brown-leftwing initiative is likely to draw serious opposition whereas the original Brown measure might have slipped by without a major campaign against it.

"An electorate that in recent years has turned down tax increases on tobacco and oil companies is unlikely to want to raise its own sale and income taxes, so all an opposition campaign needs to do is run against both Brown-leftwing and Munger as though they are single measure." 

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