California Governor Jerry Brown wants his tax initiative to be the only one on the November 2012 ballot.  Backers of competing tax initiatives want the same thing for theirs.  That raises questions of whether voters could face more than one tax measure next year - and whether that could spell defeat for them all.

 

The governor says he's trying to clear the field so there aren't too many tax measures on the ballot.

 

Brown: "If it creates chaos and confusion, that could be difficult.  And I certainly would like to avoid doubling the cuts, which will be the result if my tax measure fails."

 

So he's talking with the groups behind some of the other ballot measures.

 

Brown: "I think one of the groups seems favorably inclined."

 

The rest, Brown says, he'll have to keep working on.  The governor is proposing an income tax increase on individuals making at least 250-thousand dollars a year … and a half-cent bump in the sales tax.  But Rick Jacobs with the Courage Campaign isn't sold.  He's with a coalition of progressive groups backing an income tax hike on California millionaires.

 

Jacobs: "This is the one that has the best chance of passing and this is the one that fits the mood and the need of the state right now."

 

As for whether Jacobs and his coalition would consider pulling their tax measure off the ballot if the governor asked?

 

Jacobs: "I guess you might ask the question of whether the governor would stand down if we ask him to."

 

Republican political consultant Rob Stutzman thinks Brown's tax initiative has a shot next year - if it's on its own.

 

Stutzman: "The concern they need to have is that the voters just see multiple tax increases, don't really differentiate one from the other and just take a general anti-tax attitude towards everything that they're seeing."

 

In all, there are about a half-dozen tax measures that have been announced or submitted to the attorney general's office.