All those who favor putting the breaks on Sacramento’s ability to overspend, please raise your hands.
I see that is most of you. Those against? I see a couple of public employee union bosses over in the corner are opposed.
Well those Sacramento politicians who made a "deal" last month to resolve the budget process with a tax increase that will cost the typical California family over $1,100, are offering another deal they hope will appeal to the majority of you.
What they are offering is Proposition 1A on the May 19 Special Election ballot. 1A is being promoted as a spending limit that will compel those under the Capitol dome to behave responsibly.
If taxpayers are wary of any offer of reform coming from those who have behaved so irresponsibly that they have run up a $42 billion deficit, their suspicions are justified.
Masked behind a weak spending limit – the limit goes up with each and every tax increase – is a two year extension of the massive tax increase that was supposed to expire in two years, doubling the damage to California taxpayers.
So anxious is Senate leader, and number one tax cheerleader, Darrell Steinberg to see that this measure passes, he selected a pro-tax colleague, Sen. Loni Hancock to draft the official ballot argument against a measure that extends taxes. What’s wrong with this picture?
To select Hancock, Steinberg rejected an argument submitted by anti-tax lawmakers, Senator Bob Dutton and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore along with the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Jon Coupal (that’s me).
Here is what makes this process a farce, and a scary one at that. As a result of Steinberg’s selection of Hancock as the author of the argument against, the word "taxes" will not appear anywhere in the official arguments for or against Proposition 1A.
So in the interest of full disclosure, and to confound those who would like to keep adult citizens in the dark, like mushrooms, and feed them fertilizer, here is the accurate ballot argument against Proposition 1A that was submitted by Senator Dutton, Assemblyman DeVore and me:
WARNING TO VOTERS: THIS IS A TAX INCREASE!
A two-thirds vote of the Legislature and the signature of the governor have made California the highest taxed state in the nation — at least for the next two years.
Proposition 1A will extend these taxes for an additional two years costing taxpayers another $20 billion.
The already approved tax increase will cost a typical California family more than $1,100 annually.
We will be paying higher sales taxes, which hits low-income residents the hardest.
We will be paying a higher car tax, which hits everyone who must drive to work.
We will be paying higher income taxes that hurt everyone.
We will see a reduction in the tax credit for dependents, costing California families $200 per child.
Proposition 1A extends all these taxes well into the future in return for meaningless "budget reform." Meaningless? Yes, Meaningless. Under Proposition 1A, every time taxes are raised, the so-called spending cap can be adjusted upward. Where’s the spending discipline in that?
Proposition 1A is not budget reform; it is a massive $20 billion tax increase!
Vote NO!
Senator Bob Dutton
31st Senate District
Assembly Member Chuck DeVore
70th Assembly District
Jon Coupal, President
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.