Standoff in Sacramento as Brown and G.O.P. Lock Horns Over Taxes

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
NYT

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown, seeking authorization to ask California voters to extend expiring taxes to avoid more draconian budget cuts, is fighting what increasingly appears to be an intractable battle.

With every passing day, Mr. Brown seems more frustrated and perplexed at the intensity of the opposition he faces from Republican legislators, who are refusing to even allow him to go before voters with his tax proposal. He is trying to pick off Republican votes — he needs two in the Senate and two in the Assembly to reach the two-thirds threshold — while he and other Democratic leaders have stepped up a public campaign to warn voters of the consequences of not extending the taxes.

“Where are the two votes?” Mr. Brown asked an aide Tuesday, after appealing to business leaders to pressure Republicans to back the plan. “Everyone is saying we can get them under these conditions, or we can get them under that condition. We don’t have them under any conditions.”

At the same time, Democratic lawmakers and labor groups are urging Mr. Brown to abandon his campaign pledge to put any tax increase before voters for approval, and instead let the Legislature try to extend the taxes directly. Mr. Brown’s chief spokesman, Gil Duran, said Wednesday that the governor would not break his pledge, however, and noted that that, too, would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

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