New America Media, News Report, Zaineb Mohammed
SAN FRANCISCO—If California Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-raising ballot measure, Proposition 30, passes Nov. 6, “a lot of it will be because of the ethnic voting population,” stated Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.

Data from the latest Field Poll shows that since 1990, over 90 percent of the increase in California’s voting population has come from the state’s ethnic voter community.

Multi-Language Poll

To better understand these demographic changes, a September Field Poll, conducted with the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, surveyed approximately 1,200 registered voters in California in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese.

Pollsters gauged their views about propositions on the presidential election and November ballot measures on issues ranging from new taxes to the death penalty. The poll was funded partly by New America Media and the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Proposition 30, backed by Gov. Brown, is one of two major tax initiatives on the ballot, and its proponents count ethnic voters among its biggest supporters. Each ethnic subgroup Field surveyed would affirm the initiative at a higher rate than the white, non-Hispanic voting population–49 percent of whom intend to vote “yes” on the measure.

The initiative would raise the state sales tax from 7.25 percent to 7.5 percent for four years, and would increase personal income tax rates on very-high-income Californians for seven years. California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that Proposition 30 would raise an average of $6 billion annually by California’s 2016-17 fiscal year. [Read more...]