LA Protesters March on Tax Day

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Hundreds of people took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles today to protest a system they say gives unfair tax breaks to the wealthy. Those marching also support Governor Jerry Brown’s new tax initiative. Martin Terrones is a communications coordinator for the United Service Workers West, which represents janitors.

“We’re here to basically say stop giving these janitors an excuse to give them a modest pay increase to cover their health care benefits," Terrones said.

Governor Brown’s initiative would increase sales taxes by a quarter of a cent. It would also raise income taxes for people who make more than $250,000 a year. 89% of these temporary tax revenues would be given to K-12 schools, and 11% to community colleges.

Melissa Chadburn is an organizer for Good Jobs LA. She says she understands the importance of this cause.

“I come from a working family. I grew up on foster care and I think it’s about time that the California’s tax initiative gets passed so that we can go ahead and continue to fund those programs that are much needed," Chadburn said.

A USC Dornsife LA Times poll found that at the end of March, nearly two-thirds of Californians supported Brown’s tax initiative.

“I applaud the governor for trying to put an initiative that’s going to make them pay a greater amount of taxes that they’re paying now. No more tax schemes. Pay what you have to, we’re doing it and we’re still taking a stand here today," Terrones said.

As expected, not everybody supports Brown’s tax initiative. Kris Vosburgh is the Executive Director for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

“If it passes, it will be a tax on the ignorance of voters who approve it," Vosburgh said. "You know there’s always people on the margin in this case. People who are may be successful, maybe have a small business, are going I just can’t afford this additional tax and still have my business remain competitive, I’m leaving. And when they leave, they take jobs with them. And if you multiply that 100 times 1000 times 100,000 times, then you see you have real impact on the California economy."

The initiative has to bring in 807,615 signatures to appear on the November 6, 2012 ballot.