Walters: California corporate tax battle affects billions Newsom needs to balance budget

During Jerry Brown’s first stint as governor of California, he became enmeshed in a very complicated dispute over how the state should tax the incomes of multinational corporations.

More than four decades later, the issue has resurfaced in a corporate tax case involving Microsoft, one of the nation’s largest corporations, a legislative bill that was semi-secretly attached to the state budget in June, and two subsequent lawsuits.

The outcome could reopen tax returns from past years...