VIDEO: In today's report, Dan Walters ponders Gov. Jerry Brown's use last week of the S-word and what it might mean for a California governor more given to tossing out Latin.
It's still five weeks until Labor Day, but the Yes on Proposition 39 campaign has already thrown down the gauntlet.
Proposition 39 is one of the three tax measures on the November ballot. Hedge fund manager Tom Steyer's proposal would change the state's corporate tax formula by making most companies calculate their liability based on their share of sales in California. Its shorthand moniker is "single-sales factor."
The Yes campaign ran a full-page ad in The Bee last week calling on four companies -- Chrysler, General Motors, Kimberly-Clark and International Paper -- to reverse course and pledge not to oppose the measure.
Deadline: "high noon" today. Otherwise, the ad says, "we will launch the big four tax dodgers campaign" with the first report listing the corporations' current contracts paid with Californians' tax dollars.
Click here to view the Yes campaign's website. You'll find a press release at this link. The ad itself is can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles election officials were expected to wrap up their recount of Proposition 29 tobacco-tax votes in 191 precincts last Friday and will post the results today on this website, lavote.net.
The recount has cost about $81,000 so far, officials say, and John Maa, the doctor who requested it, will be on the hook for the bill if the recount doesn't change the election outcome. Official results showed the ballot measure losing by 24,076 votes out of more than 5.1 million cast.
Speaking of propositions, today's the last day for the Secretary of State's Office to respond to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association appeal of how the November ballot measures were numbered.
Alert readers may recall that Molly Munger, whose tax ballot measure rivals Gov. Jerry Brown's, challenged a legislative change that resulted in Brown's measure appearing before Munger's. Munger lost and decided not to appeal, but Howard Jarvis -- which had joined her in the challenge -- has taken up the mantle.
California's official voter information guide is due at the state printer on Aug. 13.
Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.
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