Taxes were lowered during Brown's first two terms as governor

[alp227]

This week's TV ad slugfest in the hotly contested race for governor centered on Democrat Jerry Brown's record on taxes during his two terms as governor in the late 1970s and early '80s.

The Brown campaign insisted that taxes were lowered during his reign. The campaign of GOP opponent Meg Whitman ran a TV ad featuring former President Bill Clinton calling Brown a liar during the 1992 presidential primary for claiming he lowered taxes in California.

But a Mercury News review of state Department of Finance records shows that taxes went down during Brown's two terms.

The review also showed that a CNN reporter erred in 1992 when he reported that taxes on Californians went up during the Brown years. It was that report that the Whitman campaign has used to bolster its assertion that Brown wasn't being honest about his tax record.

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Brown campaign, called on the opposing camp to immediately pull the ad featuring Clinton.

"For once, will Meg Whitman do the right thing and take the ad down?" Clifford said.

--snip--

Ironically, the reporter who made the error, Brooks Jackson, is now the head of a respected nonpartisan website, FactCheck.org, that rebuts what it considers inaccurate and misleading claims by politicians.

Reached late Friday night on the East Coast, Jackson said he would review California Department of Finance documents on Monday and issue a "fact check on an 18-year-old story" -- his own.

Jackson had reported in 1992 that taxes during the Brown years had increased from $6.47 per $100 of personal income to $6.98 per $100. But there was one problem: He used the wrong base year, the 1973-74 fiscal year, when Ronald Reagan was governor.

Jackson should have used fiscal year 1974-75, Reagan's last budget.

If Jackson had used the correct year, it would have showed taxes decreasing from $7.03 per $100 in fiscal year 1974-75 to $6.83 in fiscal year 1982-83, the last year Brown had control of the budget.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_16047007

CNN? In 1992? Wow even before Fox News and the neocons came along you could count on CNN for pushing anti-Democratic talking points.

Also, local public radio program The California Report did a "campaign check" segment regarding Brown and Whitman ads.

[JDPriestly]

1. I think that Brown is the one candidate who just might be able to

cut the California budget a bit. While he is not poor by any means, he lives more modestly than most other politicians and is a pretty unmaterialistic guy. If you want to find someone who knows how to balance a budget, look for someone who doesn't have to have a private jet or several homes or annual vacations in expensive locations. My image of Jerry Brown is that he doesn't demand the high lifestyle that Meg Whitman or Arnold Schwarzenegger like so much. I think Brown will understand what can and cannot be cut. Also, he is at the end of his career and will not be attempting to spend money in order to make political friends for future campaigns.

These are points that I would like to see Brown make in his ads. How does he live? How did he live as governor? How will he pick his appointments? What will he recommend about cutting back the pay of members of his commissions, etc.? How can he try to save money for California? And how will he want to spend the money that he does not save? The more specific Brown can be, the tougher it will be for Whitman to respond with her pious generalities. She does not intend to cut the budget when it comes to rewarding her rich friends. She just wants to hurt the poor, disabled and elderly. Cruella, that should be her nickname. The wicked witch in Snow White, that is who she reminds me of.