Gavin Newsom’s big dilemma: Tax the rich or defy the left
Story by Jeremy B. White • 22h
SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom has spent his time in Sacramento slamming proposal after proposal to tax the rich. Pressure on him from the left to back down is about to hit a boiling point.
Labor unions have already floated one ballot initiative to tax California’s wealthiest residents and circulated another to cement a previous income tax hike. And they are in preliminary talks with progressive lawmakers about ways to squeeze more from multinational corporations.
It's an effort to stabilize a projected multi-billion dollar state budget deficit that could be exacerbated by federal cuts. But it also amounts to a massive early test for Newsom's likely presidential campaign. If he holds the line on taxes, he risks alienating unions and progressive allies who form the backbone of the Democratic electorate. If he doesn't, he risks reinforcing the Republican caricature of him as a California tax-and-spend liberal, and driving away moderate voters and the titans of California industry who have supported Newsom since he first entered politics.
“If he decides to run for president, he can say California has a really strong economy, in many ways it’s the envy of the country,” said Jim Wunderman, a Newsom ally who has run an influential Bay Area business coalition, and that “as governor I held the line many times under great pressure to raise taxes, which should give some comfort to voters that as president he’s not just going to willy-nilly raise taxes.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gavin-newsom-s-big-dilemma-tax-the-rich-or-defy-the-left/ar-AA1T5Fky?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=69500ffa72e84fe6aeb782060ac29cfc&ei=47
