Opinion: A second chance for Proposition 30 taxes? Survey says, probably.

The California legislators who might have been hesitant to talk about an extension of Proposition 30’s temporary taxes may be less squeamish to do so now.

This week the Public Policy Institute of California released the results of its recent survey on the state of Californians’ political mind, “Californians and Their Government,” which found that more than half of Californians polled think Proposition 30.2 is a great idea. And that’s before the hard sell of a campaign.

Likely voters support the idea at a slightly smaller percentage, the poll found.

Proposition 30 increased state sales tax by a quarter-cent and raised income tax for top earners. It was part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012 package to close the state’s budget gap and it passed with 55.4% of the vote.

Long before this poll, some Democratic lawmakers had already raised the possibility of a Proposition 30 extension. If it isn’t renewed, a substantial money stream will start to dry up on Dec. 31, 2016 and disappear by the end of 2018. State Controller Betty Yee reports that Proposition 30 has brought the state more than $13 billion in revenue.

The poll will surely soothe worries that voters won’t give Proposition 30 a second chance.

But legislators should take heed of the second part of PPIC’s Proposition 30 question: When pollsters asked about making the taxes permanent, support dropped precipitously -- from 51% to 35% percent of all adults, and from 48% to 32% for likely voters.

Follow me on Twitter @MarielGarzaLAT