The conventional wisdom says that Americans will never vote to raise taxes. If the conventional wisdom is right, we will never have an adequate supply of public goods such as environmental health, infrastructure, or education. It is palpably obvious to anyone who is paying attention that we don’t invest enough in public goods, because we refuse to consider taxes.
Happily, the conventional wisdom is wrong!
Oregon voters approved Measures 66 and 67, raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 and large corporations in order to close the state’s budget deficit. Although the Oregon legislature had already approved these taxes, an alliance of corporations and teabaggers put it to voters in a referendum—and they lost.
This is at least as important as the Republican victory in Massachusetts but I will guess you won’t here much about it from the national media.
Is California paying attention?
