Californians dump income-tax cut

California voters, who two years ago cut their property taxes, this time soundly rejected an attempt to slice their state income taxes in half. With 36 percent of the state's precincts reporting early wednesday, the Proposition 9 initiative to halve the income tax was losing, 63 percent to 37 percent.

It was overwhelmingly rejected in nearly all 58 counties except Orange, where it led by a slim margin.

The defeat was a stunning reversal of the 2-to-1 victory margin for Proposition 13, which slashed property levies 57 percent in 1978 and propelled its sponsor, Howard Jarvis, to national prominence.

The measure would have cost the state an estimated $4.9 billion in lost tax revenue for the budget year beginning July 1 and another $4.2 billion the following year.