Capitol Alert: VIDEO: Broadening appeal, Jerry Brown says tax initiative about jobs

OAKLAND - For the second time in as many days, Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday said his ballot measure to raise taxes is about jobs, seeking just more than two weeks before Election Day to broaden its appeal.

The Democratic governor had previously focused his campaign for Proposition 30 almost exclusively on education and the $5.4 billion in cuts to schools and community colleges the initiative would prevent this year.

The initiative would also help bolster the state budget, however, and Brown's message had become muddled in controversy with Molly Munger, the proponent of a rival tax measure, about Proposition 30's relative benefit to education.

Brown told the congregation at Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland on Sunday that the initiative is "very important to schools, to families, to jobs and to California's future."

He was even more explicit about jobs at a campaign event in San Francisco the previous day.

"I say Proposition 30 is about jobs, because it's about kids and teachers, and they produce the brains and the skills that make the jobs of the future possible," Brown told members of the California Teachers Association on Saturday. "So Proposition 30 is about a lot of things. It's about kids, it's about teachers, it's also about the credit rating in California, it's about social harmony, it's about hope, and it's about those who've been most blessed to have an opportunity to give something back."

Brown's campaign stop at the Oakland church on Sunday was his second of the day, following a brief address at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. In both appearances he cited a passage from the Gospel of Luke that has long been used by politicians and by Brown in his tax campaign at least since August.

"To those whom much is given, much will be required," Brown said in Oakland. "Much will be required. And this Election Day, you make sure it's required, for our kids, for the schools, for the jobs."