Reiner Closes in on Calif. Ballot Measure

[Judi Lynn]

Reiner Closes in on Calif. Ballot Measure
By JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press Writer

November 17, 2005, 10:54 PM EST

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Film director and Democratic activist Rob Reiner has collected more than a million signatures to get an initiative on the June ballot that would fund preschool for all California children.

Reiner's measure would increase income tax rates for the top 0.6 percent of income earners to guarantee a year of preschool for all 4-year-olds.

"We did this thing the right way. We brought business leaders and labor together to help draft the initiative," he said in a telephone interview after the announcement outside a San Francisco preschool.

The initiative would raise an estimated $2.4 billion a year by increasing income taxes by 1.7 percent for individuals who earn at least $400,000 a year, or couples earning $800,000. It also would increase training for preschool teachers and require that they be paid at the level of public school teachers in the same county.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-reiner-initiative,0,6782946.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Charlie Brown]

1. Alright Bob!

"A Few Good Men" is one of my favorite movies, btw.

[Wilms]

2. If I got the math right it'll set the 0.6 back an average of $1200.

Could ballot initiatives be a means to redress the tax breaks that leave the country in debt and disrepair?

[David__77]

3. It will pass.

I hope that we also have a minimum wage measure if our fascist governor vetoes an increase again. By the way, the Democrats had better not send a watered-down measure to him in order to "compromise."