How ironic that successful international movie star and businessman Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is literally volunteering his time as Governor of California, has overnight become the largest donor to the campaign to pass Proposition 14, the "Top Two" initiative, which purports to somehow make things work "better" in Sacramento.

The reason for the irony is that Proposition 14 is truly the "wealthy, special interests empowerment act" where the vastly wealthy people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the vastly wealthy special interest groups that dominate state capitol politics (starting with the public employee unions and big business) will significantly increase their influence.

Why is this?  First and foremost, Proposition 14 makes it a whole lot more expensive to campaign for public office, while doing nothing to make it any easier for a candidate to raise money.  So this really advantages those players in system who have money to spread around. 

Let’s also remember that the stated purpose of this measure is to decrease the role of "ideologues" in the legislature.  This will play right into the hands of the special interests in Sacramento — as it is those darned ideologues (root word: "idea" – as in "committed to ideas") are largely responsible for stopping virtually all attempts to raise taxes in Sacramento.

Remember that this measure, Proposition 14, was born out of the frustrations of the ill-fated February 09 budget deal when it was so hard to get Republicans to sign off on taxes.  If this measure passes, look for a lot more tax increases in the future.  None of which are likely to any more of dent in the pocket of Arnold Schwarzenegger than this $500,000 check he wrote towards its passage.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.