Radio hosts change tune on tax election, then so do GOP lawmakers

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Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats in the Legislature have long complained that Republicans in the Legislature take their policy cues from radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.

The timing of Republicans’ new position in budget talks –- that they would now support an election on tax extensions, but not a ‘bridge tax’ until that election -– will likely only add fuel to that fire.

The new GOP stance comes only days after Kobylt and Chiampou, whose KFI-AM (640) drive-time show reaches more listeners than any other non-syndicated talk program in California, changed their own opinion on the matter.

After months of pillorying Republicans who dared to negotiate about a special election on extending current vehicle and sales tax rates to help balance the budget -- calling for the ‘head on a stick’ of any GOP legislator who would relent to Brown’s proposal -- Kobylt announced last Thursday that he had changed his mind.

‘I think we ought to go and have the referendum since it probably will be voted down, all the taxes,’ Kobylt said. He said his change of heart was the result of studying poll numbers for the tax extensions that Brown seeks. ‘The Republicans that we put the heads on a stick? Let them put this on the ballot now, because I think we’re going to win,’ he said.

Brown said in an interview Tuesday that Republicans are now supportive of a fall election in exchange for concessions on a spending cap, public-employee pension changes and regulatory overhaul. The ‘sticking point’ concerns extending the current tax rates until an election can be held, Brown said. State Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) concurred.

Brown spokesman Gil Duran said he had no insight into whether the radio hosts’ reversal had an impact on Sacramento Republicans. ‘I prefer to think that the desire to do what’s best for the state is the motivating factor of our legislators in California,’ he said.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento