The Yes on Prop 30 campaign sent a letter to Molly Munger, author of Proposition 38, warning her that her comments on a television interview over the weekend declaring her intent to compare her initiative with Prop 30 would undermine her stated goal of improving education.
The thing is, Munger believes Proposition 30 won’t improve education to the extent that her measure would and she reserves the right to say so.
While obviously not an idle bystander, our No on 30 campaign has a great interest in this debate. It raises the question why Prop 30 supporters are so afraid of comparisons between the two measures if they think their proposition is superior?
Perhaps, that’s because Prop 30 doesn’t do what the proponents says it does.
Munger’s comment was prompted by the first set of ads put out by the Yes on 30 campaign. Munger called them deceptive. Her analysis falls in line with media accounts that the ads are misleading.
One of the main issues Munger complained about is that the revenue raised by the tax increases won’t go exclusively to schools. Isn’t it interesting that the letter to Munger included signatures from the heads of SEIU and AFSCME, two unions that have concerns about how much money ends up in the General Fund.
This play by Yes on 30 to cut off Munger’s effort of comparisons continues a troubling history of Proposition 30’s proponents trying to hide the measure’s true nature from voters.
The legislature and governor were so concerned with Proposition 30 being compared to Munger’s measure that they pulled legislative shenanigans to move their measure around the ballot. Under former rules governing qualified initiatives, the governor’s measure should have appeared next to Munger’s on the ballot. Good to size them up side-by-side. Legislative manipulation turned the governor’s measure into Prop 30 at the top of the ballot and Munger’s measure into Prop 38 near the bottom. L.A. Times columnist, George Skelton, called this maneuver “sleazy politics.”
When it came time for the state Senate to have a hearing on the tax measures, the Senate turned off a scheduled televised broadcast of the hearing so concerns about Prop 30 and comparisons to Prop 38 would not reach a wider audience.
If the political establishment does all in its power to hide the truth about its measure from the voters, Molly Munger has every right to make her comparisons.