This morning, here in San Jose, I participated on a panel discussion looking at the ballot propositions that appear on the April 19 – May 19 Special Election ballot measures (we post a month-long range because I believe that a majority of votes cast will be by absentee ballot voters, many of who already have their ballots and are voting).  The event was co-sponsored by two groups that aren’t as conservative as I am (most aren’t, eh?) – the New America Foundation (famous for the “hidden tax” argument used to support the ill-fated Schwarzenegger/Nunez socialized health care plan, and the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Venture (who rotate out a photo of global warming alarmist Al Gore on their home page).  

On the panel with me were my usually-but-not-this-time- ally Loren Kaye (a great guy).  Loren represented the CalChamber and its policy foundation as an articulate advocate for 1A-1F. 

Representing the ideological left was Jean Ross of the California Budget Project.  I think it may have been a bit disconcerting for both Jean and myself that we were both advocating a vote against all of the measures – though for different reasons in large part.

Rounding out the panel was the “anti-partisan” writer, commenter and FR friend Joe Mathews, of the New America Foundation. 

The discussion was great, and I think that there was certainly agreement among all of the participants that the process that we currently have in place to formulate and enact public policy in the State Capitol is – well – not functioning well. 

I won’t rehash all of the back and forths that took place – but I did find out one very interesting piece of information in the forum that I did not know before – and has greatly increased the imperative of defeating the Propositions – especially in this case Proposition 1C, the measure that would “modernize” (code for “expand) the current lottery and allow the state to borrow against future lottery proceeds to help close the current budget gap. 

Did you know that if 1C passes, while proponents talk about borrowing $5 billion against future lottery revenues, the measure establishes a five member committee (a majority of which is appointed by the Governor) which can actually authorize ANY amount of borrowing against future proceeds?  Forget $5 billion – how about $10 or $15 billion??

This information is courtesy of Jean Ross, and her organization has a summary of 1C which also reveals another non-mentioned factoid – which is that if passed, 1C would delegate away from the people to the legislature the ability to make future changes in our state-sponsored gambling institution.

The more I really look at the these measures, the more they seem to be filled with a Capitol Insider’s “wish list” of items that they want to get “past” the electorate – and like with the $16 billion in new taxes tied to 1A, they aren’t effectively communicating the less-than-attractive items to the electorate, nor is this information readily findable to a voter who wants to make a fully informed decision.

More of a reason to reject the “burrito” (as MSM pundits are referring to the package) all together. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.