Initiative Petition Circulating - Permanent Sales Tax Increase

We all know there's no such thing as a temporary tax*. The legislature passed a "temporary" sales tax increase of 1% to help with the current state budget crisis (instead of cutting state government, of course). Now the California Teachers Association, easily the most powerful lobbying group in the state, is circulating petitions to make that temporary increase permanent. The revenue could only be spent on K-12 and junior colleges, and would be exempted from all other spending rules and limits - it's a permanent $5 Billion per year tax increase over which the Legislature has no control. Does anyone think the taxpayers of this state can, or should, shoulder this added expense? How about the Legislature start actually living within it's means? Please watch out for this petition and make sure NOT to sign it.

*It took until 2006, and only because of court orders, for the Federal government to stop collecting a telephone excise tax originally enacted in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War. That "temporary" tax lasted 108 years.