You might think it’s too early to share my opinions on the November election, however, the fact of the matter is upwards of half of the voters will be casting their ballots in the next week or so! I do want to remind the readers that these are my personal recommendations, as COLAB does not endorse candidates.
In the meantime, I highly recommend a great reference, ballotpedia.org. It offers an analysis of each ballot measure, which is vital in light of the fact that many of these measures are difficult to understand and in some cases deliberately deceptive.
Finally, on a side note, I don’t encourage voters to vote early because a lot can change in the last few weeks of an election cycle, but be that as it may, here are my personal recommendations on this year’s ballot measures.
Proposition 51 would raise $9 billion in general obligation bonds for schools. This is problematic on a number of fronts. First off, these bonds encumber the state’s general fund, and when you add interest this measure is going to cost upward of $18 billion by the time the bonds are paid off. It’s unfortunate that voters think bonds are free money. They aren’t. They have to be paid off, meaning we can’t afford other things, like repairing our roads and freeways or maintaining adequate capacity in our state prisons. Moreover, our state has already borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars in the last 15 years by way of state and local bond measures in order to build schools, with no end in sight.
The reason the schools keep borrowing all this money in spite of receiving nearly half of all property tax revenues is because they can’t afford to pay for their pension obligations. In essence, this is a shell game of fooling the voters into ostensibly paying extra for buildings when in reality they are subsidizing pensions. I am voting no on Proposition 51.
Proposition 52 is a bit difficult to understand. However, in a nutshell, this proposition keeps in place a hospital fee that secures $3 billion per year in matching money from the feds to help pay for care for poor people. The reason this measure is on the ballot is because the state Legislature was stealing some of the federal monies for other purposes! Proposition 51 keeps the program in place while keeping the Legislature’s hand out of the cookie jar. I am voting yes.
Proposition 53 prohibits the Legislature from issuing or selling bonds without voter approval if the bond amount exceeds $2 billion. This proposition doesn’t affect local projects, the University of California system, freeway construction, or measures to address natural disasters. What it does do is keep unaccountable politicians and bureaucrats from spending money voters never authorized on boondoggle projects. Vote yes!
Proposition 54 is the best proposition on the ballot and is long overdue! Quite simply, it prohibits the Legislature from passing any bill unless and until it has been printed and published giving the public 72 hours notice before being voted on! It also requires the Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of their proceedings and post them on the internet. Vote yes!
Proposition 55 is the result of yet another broken promise by California special interest groups as it extends a so-called temporary tax another 12 years! This tax has a severe impact on small business owners who get taxed on the gross income of their business albeit the measure is presented crassly as a class-warfare tax on rich people! The fiscal impact of this measure will result in a $100 billion hit to our economy! It extends Proposition 30, which was supposed to be a temporary tax hike to see us out of the 2008 recession. Extending it another 12 years is adding insult to injury, considering the fact that our government initiated no meaningful reforms to curb pension debt and address infrastructure deficits in the meantime. In other words, the more money you send to Sacramento, the more ways they manage to squander the same because they are not being forced to tighten their belt or pay down their obligations! Please cut them off of this gravy train by voting no on Proposition 55!
Proposition 56 increases cigarette taxes by $2 per pack with equivalent increases on other smoking products including electronic cigarettes and vaping products. This measure is actually counter-productive to public health because vaping is considered 95 percent safer than smoking cigarettes. Accordingly, the relative affordability of vaping products has encouraged millions of Americans to quit smoking! This measure is indicative of an addiction, an addiction to taxes by any number of special interest groups that no longer have the health and well-being of the public in mind. Vote no.
Proposition 57 invites you to release another 25,000 felons from state prison before their sentence is up. Whereas, the proponents claim this only applies to non-violent felons, the district attorneys of our state say otherwise. This all has to do with a previous ballot measure that downgraded serious violent felonies to misdemeanor status. Only in California would we classify rapists, human traffickers, and child molesters as non-violent felons! Vote no!
Proposition 58 effectively repeals Proposition 227, which positively rid our schools of bilingual education. Numerous studies and test results that compare the results of English immersion versus bilingual education points to the conclusion that our current policies of immersion work best for everyone involved! Vote no on Proposition 58.
Proposition 59 is a feel-good advisory vote that serves to encourage a constitutional amendment to overturn a Supreme Court decision affecting campaign contributions. There is no doubt big money is used to influence the outcome of elections, however, both Republican and Democratic interests are equally guilty. I say play on! Vote no on Proposition 59.
Proposition 60 says a lot about California politics, priorities, and values as it asks voters to require porn stars to wear condoms! This measure is an embarrassment to the initiative process. I personally don’t care how people vote on this measure as the people engaged in this industry need more help than a condom will provide.
Proposition 61 is seriously flawed. It attempts to tie the cost of prescription drugs purchased with state dollars to the price that the Veterans Administration pays for the same meds. It’s opposed by veterans’ groups, the California Medical Association, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association because the measure is virtually guaranteed to either backfire on vets, patients, and taxpayers, if not all three groups! Vote no.
Propositions 62 and 66 are tied together. Proposition 62 repeals the death penalty, whereas, Proposition 66 mends it! Knowing that more people die on California’s death row from old age than by execution, we should be changing our laws to facilitate executions instead of eliminating the death penalty altogether. Vote no on 62 and yes on 66.
Proposition 63 is a superfluous gun-control measure that has already been addressed by legislation already signed into law earlier this year. It accomplishes nothing constructive in stemming gun violence by gang bangers and terrorists who don’t care that killing people is already against the law. Vote no.
Proposition 64 legalizes marijuana use while raising taxes on both cultivation and retail sales. This measure is dangerous to our society on a number of levels. Whereas, I don’t oppose the use of marijuana for authentic medical purposes including treating cancer patients, it’s another thing altogether to acquiesce to people getting high. How so? First, driving-under-the-influence fatalities have skyrocketed in the states that have approved similar measures. Second, there are serious long-term consequences to mental health from smoking marijuana including the onset of schizophrenia in some people. Third, when something becomes legal for adults it sends a message to children that the activity must be OK. This means more kids, who are particularly vulnerable to deleterious consequences due to their stage of development, will be encouraged to experiment. Vote no!
Proposition 65 redirects the state-mandated fees on grocery carryout bags from the pockets of grocers and other retailers to the Wildlife Conservation Board. The $400 million per year generated by the bag fees can then be used to address drought conditions in our forests, increase clean drinking water supplies, beach cleanup, and other worthwhile endeavors. If voters don’t see fit to repeal bag fees altogether (see Proposition 67) at least this measure potentially makes better use of the money, so I am voting yes.
Proposition 67 deals with a proposed statewide plastic bag ban on all retail outlets—not just large grocery stores. Plastic bags happen to be recyclable and reusable—what’s not to love? The main argument we have heard over the years is that plastic bags threaten sea creatures, but that’s a myth based upon a study having to do with plastic fishing gear not plastic bags! Moreover, the fees charged by retailers for paper bags is nothing less than a punitive tax on consumers, which is costing them billions of dollars. Finally, there are legitimate health concerns associated with reusable bags that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. Vote no!
Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB and the host of the Andy Caldwell Radio Show weekdays from 3-5 pm on AM1440 and AM1290. Send comments to scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2016.