I am going to vote no on all of the propositions in May.  Very simply stated, the so-called spending limit does not warrant the tax increases, or an extension.  As usual, our Republican friends in the Legislature got sold a bill of goods.  They really got nothing for the tax increases they voted. for.  The ballot propositions that are supposed to implement the budget solutions are either meaningless, foolish, or increase state spending.  As usual, the Democrats got everything they wanted, that is, no spending reductions at all (I am not going to argue about the baseline issues, there really are no spending reductions), all the tax increases they wanted, and no effective limit on future spending.  All in all, just another typical year for this Governor, who, after being given historic opportunities to revamp state spending, has done nothing.  He is not the Governator, he is not a terminator, he is the Capitulator, and through his capitulation to the demands of the Democrats and the special interest union thugs they represent, he has done more damage to the people of the state of California, and to the Republican party, than anyone can measure.

Let’s start with Propositions 1B through 1E.  If one were to analyze the worst budget initiatives of the last thirty years, they would include Proposition 98, the lottery, the Reiner tobacco tax for children’s programs, and Proposition 63, the mental healh tax.  Proposition 1B through 1E simply allows the state to continue spending general fund money on these failed programs.  Proposition 1B is bigger spending on education.  Proposition 1C simply eliminates the lottery money from education in the future, and allows the state to avoid spending cuts on other programs.  Proposition 1D takes money out of the Reiner initiative, once again to maintain state spending (and avoid necessary spending reductions) on unnecessary programs.  Proposition 1E simply takes money from a really foolishly enacted tax, and transfers it to mental health programs of dubious utility, once again to avoid real spending reductions for those programs.  I could get into the details of each of the programs, but suffice it to say, each of these programs were sufficiently funded in 1998 when the state’s revenues were half of what they are today, and the increases since then have done little or nothing to increase their effectiveness, and completely undermined their efficiency.  These propositions are unnecessary, and quite frankly, counter productive.

Proposition 1F merely codifies existing practices in the awarding of legislative pay increases.  The commission has never given a pay raise in the midst of a budget crisis.  To enact 1F is no reform, and makes no change to existing practice.  More important, if anyone really knows how the funding of the Legislature works in the wake of Proposition 140 (the 1990 term limits initiative which also limited spending on the Legislature), they would know that everytime you limit or change legislator’s pay, all that happens is that Democrat staffers, many of whom earn more than $150,000 per year, simply have more money for raises for them.  In practice, Proposition 140 has guaranteed a minimum amount of money be spent on the Legislature as a whole.  If that money is not spent on Legislator’s salaries, it increases the pot for staff raises.  Since those staff raises rarely go to Republican staff, that means that evey dollar that is taken out of a Republican Legislator’s pocket goes into the pocket of a Democrat staffer.  Good for the staffer, but not really budget reform at all.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.