We're sorry.  We admit, we've overspent ourselves into bankruptcy.  We've taken all the money you've given us previously and frittered it away on shiny things that caught our attention.  We've ignored every previous law, budget reform, and policy statement ever enacted.  We can't help ourselves; we can't control our spending habits.  We need you to control us with a new set of budget reforms and spending limits, and we promise you, this time, we'll obey them.  Really.  We mean it this time.  And we want you to give us a whole truckload of additional money while you're add it.  You can trust us this time.  We promise.  We really, really promise.
 
Trust us.
 
This is the message being sent to Californians next week to sell them on a collection of new ballot measures.  California, we keep getting told, has a "budget crisis."  Here is the honest truth: California does not have a budget crisis; what California has is a state government with a spending problem.

The facts are inescapable.  First, California is one of the most affluent economies in the world.  By ourselves, we used to be the fifth largest economy in the world; now, I believe, we are still seventh or eighth.  California is awash in assets, in terms of resources, production, and personal wealth.  Second, with a raft of recent tax increases, Californians are the highest-taxed citizens in the nation.  It doesn't take a lot of brain power to put these two facts together and draw a conclusion: if California is the richest state, and its government takes a bigger share of that richness than does any other state, then the California government receives an awful lot of money.  And yet, as we read in every newspaper and hear in every news broadcast, the government is broke and panicked.

How can that be?  The only explanation is that the state government is spending money faster than it can receive it.

The six ballot propositions Californians have to address on Tuesday, Propositions 1A to 1F, do nothing to control the government's profligate spending.  They extend the government's reach into its citizens' pockets through taxation, and reallocate money already specially designated for particular needs to general spending.  There are no reforms in any of these propositions.  The backers of these propositions are the legislators and governor who can't control their spending, and the corrupt, greedy public employee unions who are the only ones who reap the benefits of this giant government largesse.  Remember that: when you hear the commercials saying that police, firemen, teachers, and others support these measures, the truth is that it is their unions - such as the giant SEIU you keep hearing about - whose coffer will swell with the dollars taken from you in taxes.

Proposition 1A is a $16 billion dollar tax increase.  That's the plain truth.  Its backers tell you that it will cure unemployment, balance the budget, and heal the state economy.  Nothing could be further from the truth; if you disagree, then name an example from history of a society that lifted its economy by taking massive wealth from its citizens and redistributing it to fat government-employee unions, welfare, and self-aggrandizing pork projects.

Proposition 1B is, on its face, a funding system for California's dismal public school system.  This school system is the laughingstock of the nation.  There are no reforms in this measure for the problems causing the quality of education in our state to be so poor; it simply throws money at it.

Proposition 1C claims to modernize the state lottery.  California's venture into state-sponsored gambling as a fundraiser currently currently requires that 50% of ticket sales to be paid out in prizes, at least 34% to be paid to the education system, and no more than 16% to go to overhead and operating system.  In a bit of fuzzy math that could only have come from a con game or from someone who failed junior-high math, Proposition 1C wants to take $5 billion from the lottery and spend it on the General Fund instead of education, increase the share to be paid out in prizes (according to the information provided, to as high as 70% or more of ticket sales), and magically have more money to give to education.  Let's do a little math together, shall we?  Suppose we increase the prize payout to 65% of ticket sales, and somehow, through efficiencies never before seen in government-run enterprises, reduce the cost of the overhead from 16% to just 12%.  That makes 77% right there, reducing the portion for education to 23%.  Ticket sales would have to increase by half of the present sales (do the math yourself, if you studied the subject outside of California) to break even on the number of dollars available for education, and that doesn't even take into account the $5 billion already borrowed by the state.

Proposition 1D's title starts with "Protects Children's Services Funding."  Well, that sounds good, doesn't it?  Of course, the Legislative Analyst's summary in the top half of the very first page says this measure reduces funding for the children's programs by $608 million immediately, and $268 million every year for the next four years, to be spent in the state's general fund.  Now, how do you protect funding for this program by reducing it by well over $1.6 billion?  Only in Orwellian terms could this title possibly be placed on this ballot measure.

Proposition 1E does for state mental health funding what 1D does for children's services - robs them to fill the holes in the governments budget shortfall.

Finally, Proposition 1F denies a pay raise to legislators when there is a budget deficit.  It's a feel-good measure for the voters.  Never mind the fact that the proponents of the measure admit "California's legislators are the highest paid in the nation."  And of course, given the current crop of legislators, what do you think they'll do when faced with a salary freeze because their spending has created a deficit?  Why, raise taxes to make up the difference, of course!  What, do you think they're going to stick it to themselves when they could be sticking it to you instead?

STAND strongly urges an adamant NO vote on all six propositions.

California voters need to vote NO on every tax increase and every bond measure put on a ballot, and vote against any incumbent of either party who supports continued reckless spending.  Period.
 
Faithful Readers: I'm new on Facebook; if you're also on Facebook, you can get instant updates of new posts through my status messages.  Search for me by my e-mail address: keith-DOT-arnold-AT-charter-DOT-net.

*** UPDATE ***  True Americans and good friend JohnGalt over at ThreeSources points to a simple and easy solution.  He asks the question "I wonder what California has that someone might be willing to pay cash for..."  Read the answer here.  For a clue, it's something that the California government can sell that is worth far more than the debt, and finance our state for years to come.  To quote that beer commercial: "Brilliant!"