If you are like me you are totally confused by all the Propositions on the 2012 California ballot. And all the commercials sponsored by special interests only make it more difficult to figure out exactly what each proposition means.
There is a lot of money at stake and a lot of money being spent to persuade voters.
So what’s on the ballot for California residents come November? All kinds of stuff appearing reasonable but hiding a lot of special interest agendas.
We thought we’d break them down in one place for you to make the voting process as painless as possible. If you click on the link there is a breakdown of the “for” and “against” arguments and the supporters/opponents .
We have new taxes….
A battle between Prop. 30 and Prop. 38.
Proposition 30 is Jerry Brown’s tax initiative of choice perhaps because of how ambiguous the language is about how the money can be spent. It’s billed as a millionaire’s tax but something being drastically overlooked is the part of the prop that enacts a sales tax hike…on everyone!
And the income tax hike is on couples making $250,000 plus which sounds like a lot of money but keep in mind these hikes are for 7 years. 250k may not be much in a few years. There is also nothing guaranteeing the money will go to schools.
Another really important thing being overlooked is this bill would change the Ca Constitution. I’d be particularly leery of anything that changes our kick-ass Constitution. It actually makes it so schools and education will always be underfunded because it changes how money is allocated. Under this prop more money will be given to the municipalities who never give it to schools and always squander it on pet projects and special interests. Look at Hercules Ca, and Bell, Ca and Stockton, Ca — all filing for bankruptcy as millions is being discovered in secret accounts. Money for schools should go DIRECTLY to schools not to municipalities to be allocated to schools.
Proposition 38, by California civil rights lawyer Molly Munger, would raise income taxes on anybody earning more than $7,300 a year for 12 years. So this is a tax on virtually everyone.
Obviously we all love education, but personally I don’t see either of these props as the answer. If we really want to help our schools our energy would be much better spent getting a ballot measure to end the slush funds that allow special interests to steal money from schools in the first place.
We have the big buzz phrase of the moment “Green Energy”
Proposition 39 The “Clean Energy Jobs Act” The bill would change how companies in California who have presences in other states calculate their tax burdens. While everyone loves the sound of the phrase “closing a tax loophole” you may wanna take a closer look because it looks like Goldman Sachs and the big banks are pushing this.
It’s sponsored by hedge fund billionaire Thomas F. Steyer with a $21,900,000.00 donation.
Thomas Steyer is a Hedge-Fund Manager that runs Farallon Capital Management, L.L.C. The firm was founded by Steyer and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. He worked under Robert Rubin, at Goldman Sachs and in Morgan Stanley’s corporate mergers and acquisitions department. (Sound familiar? Robert Rubin? as in the architect behind the financial crisis and the banking fraud). This prop sets up a 500 million dollar slush fund and a new bureaucracy to allocate the money.
And green energy and global warming are the new Wall Street trading scams du jour. Thats why so many big banks are backing taxes and carbon trading schemes that they get a cut of and can game.
We have political donation reform?
Proposition 32
Would prohibit the use of payroll deductions for political purposes. It would technically apply to both public and private employers, but of course it really only affects union employees.
The proposition would ban contributions by government contractors to the politicians who control contracts awarded to them, but hold on a second…..
This may sound like a good idea but it exempts developers who get billions in government contracts. What good does it do to crack down on unions if you just exempted the competing special interest…housing developers. Both interests clearly need to be reigned in but dis-empowering one and transferring that power to another doesn’t exactly sound like reform and the developers are funding this proposition.
GMO labeling
Proposition 37
Mandates the labeling of genetically modified foods. This is probably the only real proposition on the ballot. Unfortunately it is full of all sorts of exemptions like food that is “certified organic,” (which we all know is a meaningless label) food from animals that are injected with stuff, food served in restaurants, etc. But I will actually vote yes on this one. I am actually relieved to see that Monsanto is spending so much to fight it because that means it does do something despite the loopholes.
Here are all the propositions you will find on the California 2012 ballot:
| CICA | Proposition 30 | Taxes | Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase |
| CICA/SS | Proposition 31 | State budget | Two-Year Budget Cycle |
| CISS | Proposition 32 | Labor | Ban on corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates |
| CISS | Proposition 33 | Insurance | Car insurance rates can be based on a person’s history of insurance coverage (“persistency discounts”) |
| CISS | Proposition 34 | Death penalty | “End the Death Penalty” |
| CISS | Proposition 35 | Law enforcement | Prohibition on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery |
| CISS | Proposition 36 | Law enforcement | Repeal of the “Three Strikes” Law |
| CISS | Proposition 37 | Regulations | Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food |
| CISS | Proposition 38 | Taxes | Molly Munger’s State Income Tax Increase |
| CISS | Proposition 39 | Taxes | Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses |
| VR | Proposition 40 | Redistricting | Referendum on the State Senate Redistricting Plan |