We’ll be devoting a LOT of space in the FlashReport between now and election day on why the big bond measures on the November ballot should be rejected by voters.
Yesterday, two important organizations, the Reason Foundation and the Performance Institute, held a major press event to talk about why these bond measures are flawed. You can read plenty on why by going here.
Here is an AP article that ran after the Reason/PI press event:
Think tanks urge voters to reject $37.3 billion bond package By Aaron C. Davis, Associated Press Writer
Two nonpartisan policy groups on Tuesday said there are major problems with the $37.3 billion public works package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature put on the November ballot, representing the first opposition to the plan by an organized group.
The Reason Foundation, a nonprofit libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles, and the Performance Institute, a San Diego-based for-profit that describes itself as nonpartisan and dedicated to improving government performance, said the bonds would dangerously increase the state’s debt load without providing clear benefits to residents.
According to a Reason Foundation analysis, more than half the bond money would go toward funding ongoing programs and not to new roads, schools, housing and other infrastructure.
The bonds "deliver too little infrastructure at too high a cost, at a time when the state is in no fiscal or management shape to take on the burden of spending the funds wisely and paying the debt costs," the analysis concluded.
The four bonds — Propositions 1B to 1E — would spend $19.9 billion on transportation, $10.4 billion on schools, $4.1 on levees and flood control and $2.9 on affordable housing. It is the largest bond package ever put before California voters.
Carl DeMaio, president of the Performance Institute, which also has an office in Washington, D.C., called on voters to reject all four and to urge lawmakers to devise a more sustainable way to pay for the state’s needs.
"California needs infrastructure, but the governor and Legislature should come back with a new set of proposals," DeMaio said. "We can’t continue down this road piecemeal."
Paul Hefner, spokesman for the Rebuild California Plan, a coalition supporting the bonds, dismissed the criticism.
"California voters, unlike the Reason Foundation, are reasonable people. They know the economy relies on schools, housing and roads, and the way to keep that running is by investing in infrastructure," he said.
One current Republican lawmaker, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine, and a former Republican legislator, Bill Leonard, who now sits on the Board of Equalization, voiced support for the groups in a conference call with reporters.
During the call, leaders of the groups also packaged their criticism of the bonds with renewed calls for a constitutional amendment to cap the state’s debt. Apart from the measures on the November ballot, the state has $37 billion in outstanding bond debt, and voters have authorized another $26.6 billion.