*How would Brown pitch tax extension proposal to voters?

His best shot at winning a special election in June (that's assuming the measure even makes it to the ballot) is emphasizing the fact that these are not new taxes, but rather extensions of taxes that people are already paying. Frankly, I don't get the sense that many folks are paying attention to when these taxes actually expire, so the notion of extending them should not be a big deal. Except that the anti-taxers are prepared to make it a big deal. Perhaps the biggest problem is that a June off-year election isn't likely to draw big numbers - and those voters who do show up will probably tilt right. From the NYT:

"It's tough; it's very tough," said John A. Perez, a Democrat who is the speaker of the Assembly. "But it's doable." Even with the cloud of uncertainty in Sacramento, Mr. Brown's aides and Democratic leaders have quietly begun laying the groundwork for a campaign on behalf of the tax extensions that is expected to cost $40 million to $60 million, a huge amount of money reflecting the cost of statewide television advertising here. Much of that money would come from state labor unions. Labor groups are already running polls and conducting focus groups that have, officials said, found great but not insurmountable resistance to tax increases.

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Democrats plan to directly link the tax surcharges to education and public safety. (Mr. Wilson linked his sales tax surcharge to saving public safety jobs; it did not hurt that in the midst of the campaign, some of the worst wildfires in the history of California swept the hills of Malibu, producing images of firefighters in action on the evening news.) In addition, Democrats said, Mr. Brown would seek to make the case that after years of stopgap approaches to the state's mounting budget problems, this one would, barring any calamity, legitimately balance the budget and put the state on a road to normalcy.

*Brown took the unusual step of appearing before a legislative committee, telling lawmakers that if the tax extension fails to materialize, he would not resort to budget gimmicks in an effort to close the deficit. That leaves cuts of around $25 billion. From Capitol Alert:

Brown took aim at Republicans who had pledged not to raise taxes, particularly those who joined a new "Taxpayers Caucus" this week to oppose the governor's tax vote. He emphasized several times that Republicans should at least send the tax proposal to voters. At one point, Brown even suggested that they place it on the ballot and then campaign against the tax measure, which, he quipped, would allow them to generate ballot-issues account donations in unlimited amounts. "When you folks say, 'No, no vote, no plan, no,' that's not American," Brown said. "It's not acceptable. And it's not loyalty to California. I don't expect you to agree with me. But I expect you to honestly say, 'I want to cut this.' "