Are California Elections Fun or What?!

This will be my second election – not counting primaries – since I came back to California. I don’t recall 2014 having a ballot quite this messy, but California is always interesting for its Propositions.

Propositions are a process whereby the public can address issues that the Legislature doesn’t want to deal with, and there have been some doozies. There are some useful “tells” in the Voter Guide that can help us in our decision process though.

If it’s showing up as a proposition, it’s either a tax issue or an issue that someone can’t get through the legislative process. Remember Proposition H8 in 2008 that banned same-sex marriage? First I look at who’s behind the Proposition and who’s opposed.

Proposition 51 is a pretty straightforward school bond for infrastructure. It’s opposed by a “taxpayer group” that doesn’t want to pay for the infrastructure construction and maintenance that’s been deferred for 10 years because that “taxpayer group” is very good at talking people out of paying for their kids’ schools. Your kids, your call, but I’m okay with it.

Proposition 52 is a bit more complicated, but not seriously. The nut is that, in order to keep all of the health care low-income Californians currently receive, the state has to pick up a share of the cost. The hospitals have been covering the state’s share, and they’re willing to keep doing that. Okay? The alternative is to leave it for the legislature. Opponents think hospital CEOs make too much money, and so do I because the people laying hands on the patients deserve more, but that’s really not the point. I’m okay with this one, too.

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Proposition 54 proposes that our legislators cannot vote on a measure until the lobbyists have had 72-hours to kill it in Sacramento. That’s not how they put it, but I did. By the time a bill gets to a vote it’s been through staff and hearings, lobbied for and against, and generally rendered near worthless, and it still has to go through one more chamber and the Governor’s office. No, it’s stupid.

Let me do 5 propositions today, and we’ll just have an even dozen* to go.

Proposition 55 is for a 12-year extension of a 2012 tax increase on Californians earning more than $250K/year for K-12 and community college funding. It is opposed, of course, by the Jarvis Gang and CalTax. If your kids are blessed to attend one of those nice schools in a well-manicured community you may feel this is frivolous. I used to have to turn away kids looking for work who were only marginally literate, and I didn’t like it so I’m voting “Yes.”

*I live in unincorporated North San Diego County, and your ballots may vary.

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