A “No Tax” Message From Voters
For Republicans and smaller government types who celebrated national victories there was little joy in California because their candidates struck out. However, buried amongst the wreckage of a long election night, the message of no new taxes came through pretty clearly.
The only actual tax increase on the ballot, Proposition 21, a vehicle tax dedicated to parks, was crushed with a 58% NO vote. Proposition 24, which would have wiped out legislation from last year that promised a tax cut for businesses was also defeated by the voters allowing the tax cut to go through.
Proposition 26 passed requiring a two-thirds vote to raise fees that, in essence, were disguised taxes. Even Proposition 25, which lowered the two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget to a majority vote, emphasized in its commercials that the two-thirds vote for tax increases was preserved.
The Hand-off Begins: The Transition from Schwarzenegger to Brown 2.0
The smoke signals were being sent as long as 10 days
ago: Candidate Jerry Brown began
postulating what he’d do in office, while Meg Whitman fought off media reports
of unfavorable polling. The transition
from the Schwarzenegger Administration to the Second Brown Administration had
begun.
I served as policy director for the Schwarzenegger 2003
recall campaign and as the point person in the transition on the economic
recovery portfolio, including energy, workers compensation insurance reform,
and the overall business climate. And
about 10 days before voters went to the polls, I had already switched my focus
to preparing for the hand-off from Governor Davis.
The first step was to prepare the official record of
Schwarzenegger’s agenda – as reflected in our policy papers, in the candidate’s
answers to questionnaires, and in his debates and prepared remarks. It may seem obvious, but someone has to come
up with an objective checklist of promises to guard against revisionist
history, and to help educate the swarm of new players who descend on a new
Governor-elect with their ideas for what needs to be done. That task should be high on the list of items
to be addressed by the Brown 2.0 transition staff.
25 + 26 = ?
OK,
maybe I was wrong. In fact, after much careful thought, I’m sold.
I’m willing to take Darrell
Steinberg at his word. And Speaker John
Perez. And Treasurer
Bill Lockyer. And top Democratic lawyer Lance
Olson. And the President
of the California Federation of Teachers. And the Los
Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle and other wise
editorialists advise me to relax and not worry. I now believe them all.
Their
conclusions: Prop 25 will not lower the legislative vote requirement for tax
increases from 2/3rds to a simple majority. And Prop 25 will not undermine
the
people’s recourse to a referendum.
Indeed,
the proponents helpfully point out that a Court
of Appeal ruled that ”nothing in (Prop 25’s) substantive provisions
would allow the Legislature to circumvent the existing constitutional
requirement of a two-thirds vote to raise taxes."
So
where does that leave us?
The Job Jerry Should Give Meg
Gov.-elect Jerry Brown said Wednesday that Meg Whitman called him to concede and offered to do whatever she could to help him and California. When a reporter asked Brown if he wanted her help, he made a crack about how her money could help fill the state budget.
Funny, but Brown should take her offer seriously and give her a real task.
There’s one that fits her resume, and might result in a good outcome for the state and for Whitman.
That job?
Fix the damn computers.
California’s technology systems are failing to perform basic tasks. Controller John Chiang has said that computers are so broken that he can’t adjust payroll without creating problems. And on election night, the California Secretary of State’s system crashed. This is basic stuff that needs to be fixed.