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Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: May 20, 2009 LOS ANGELES — A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year. The results dealt a severe setback to the state’s fragile fiscal structure and to Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislators who cobbled together the measures as part of a last-minute budget deal passed in February.The measures, which would have prolonged tax increases, capped state spending, earmarked money for education and involved the state in a complex borrowing...

Check out the returns from today's CA election. EVERY ONE of the props are a big "NO" except for the last one, 1F. Let's see how the libs handle this one. Popcorn, anyone?

Defeat is sharp rebuke to governor, Legislature Matthew Yi,Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Tuesday, May 19, 2009 As expected, California voters were rejecting a package of ballot measures in Tuesday's special election that would have reduced the state's projected budget deficit of $21.3 billion to something slightly less overwhelming: $15.4 billion, early returns showed. The defeat of the measures means that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature will have to consider deeper cuts to education, public safety, and health and human services, officials have said. Propositions 1A through 1E were being defeated in early returns. Those measures seek to...

Most ballot measures trail in early returns May. 19, 2009 California voters - at least some of them - were deciding the fate of a sextet of budget-related ballot measures today that legislators and the governor said were vital to finding a cure for the state's fiscal ills. But early returns presaged a poor prognosis, as the electorate was rejecting all but one of the measures. With 11 percent of the precincts reporting, the Secretary of State's Office said none of Propositions 1A through 1E was capturing more than 42 percent of the vote. Only Measure 1F, which would freeze...

PROPOSITION 1A STATE BUDGET. CHANGES CALIFORNIA BUDGET PROCESS. LIMITS STATE SPENDING. INCREASES “RAINY DAY” BUDGET STABILIZATION FUND. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICIAL TITLE AND SUMMARY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STATE BUDGET. CHANGES CALIFORNIA BUDGET PROCESS. LIMITS STATE SPENDING. INCREASES “RAINY DAY” BUDGET STABILIZATION FUND. Increases size of state “rainy day” fund from 5% to 12.5% of the General Fund. A portion of the annual deposits into that fund would be dedicated to savings for future economic downturns, and the remainder would be available to fund education, infrastructure, and debt repayment, or for use in a declared emergency. Requires additional revenue above historic trends to be deposited...

Open for discussion/comment. Here is the link to the results.

SACRAMENTO -- In a last-minute twist, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will miss his own special election in his state on Tuesday. Schwarzenegger flew to Washington Monday night to appear Tuesday morning with President Barack Obama and other leaders to announce a change in the nation's automobile emission rules. "Gov. Schwarzenegger has been leading the fight for California and 13 other state to regulate vehicle emissions," said gubernatorial spokesman Aaron McLear. "(The) historic announcement will include a three-party agreement between California, the Obama administration and the automakers that not only allows California to regulate our emissions but also establishes a national...

In a last-minute twist, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will miss his own special election. The governor instead will appear Tuesday in Washington, D.C., with President Barack Obama and other leaders to announce a change in automobile emissions rules, said Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear. The governor will remain in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with congressional members and Obama officials "regarding the drastic cuts proposed in his May budget revision," McLear said. Schwarzenegger needs a federal waiver and congressional action to cut as much as $750 million in Medi-Cal.

In less than 24 hours, you're going to be hearing the righteous indignation of all sorts of California pundits and policy types. They'll no doubt be shouting about an embarrassingly low turnout in Tuesday's statewide special election and the astounding ignorance on the part of those who did vote. Though not completely without merit, their rantings also will be part and parcel of the problem they're condemning: Our political elites are burdening the public with too much democracy. Yes, I said too much. The state is on the verge of financial Armageddon -- in the governor's words -- and I...

The battle over six budget-related measures on Tuesday's special election ballot has generated more than $31.5 million in campaign spending, split the state's labor community and created strange bedfellows on both sides. Supporters, aided by the powerful California Teachers Association and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's business allies, have raised more than $27.6 million to back Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F. Opponents, a collection of unions, anti-tax groups and supporters of children's and mental health programs, have raised $3.8 million. ... the California Federation of Teachers, a smaller rival to the California Teachers Association ... has chipped in more...

The end of Washington’s spending spree may soon come thanks to incautious California. The day care center known as the California Legislature has led the State of Disaster to fiscal ruin. So bad is the situation here in the Shaky State that politicians - unable to balance the budget without bankrupting the taxpayers - rigged a series of ballot propositions to do jigger the books. ... Odds of these ballot measures passing is slightly below Hell’s sixth ring. If they fail, California’s $42 billion shortage combined with its junk bond rating would likely push the Land of Fruits and Nuts...

SACRAMENTO – It was budget déjà vu this week as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed fixing the state's fiscal problems by borrowing $2 billion from cities and counties. Since the early 1990s, Sacramento has raided local property taxes three times to painful results. City and county officials in Orange County and across the state complain that the state's meddling in 1992, 1993 and 2003 plundered their reserves, crippled their services and pushed their finances to the breaking point. Even the governor agrees that pillaging local governments is wrong, but with the state facing yet another multi-billion deficit, he says his hand's...

Thursday, May 14, 2009 Californians will vote next Tuesday on a series of budget-related propositions, and one thing is clear from new Rasmussen Reports telephone polling in the state: Voters aren’t in the mood for tax increases to ease California’s budget woes. Seventy-three percent (73%) of California voters oppose raising state income taxes to eliminate the budget deficit. Raising the state sales tax is opposed by 69%. At the same time, 69% favor major cuts in government spending to eliminate the budget deficit. Just 16% oppose the spending cuts. There is strong support for one concept that will be on...

SACRAMENTO—The decisions facing California voters next week are all about the state's precarious finances, but Tuesday's special election also is shaping up as a watershed moment for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. If voters approve the confusing package of measures he helped craft, it will help build Schwarzenegger's case as a government reformer. If voters reject them, as they appear likely to do, the Republican governor will find himself in a position he could not have imagined when he bolted from Hollywood to the state's executive suite nearly six years ago. In that case, Schwarzenegger will be forced to spend much of...

Millions of dollars have been raised to fight the linchpin of ballot measures in Tuesday's election, a package that was carefully crafted to discourage big-bucks opposition. Though vastly outspent, opponents of Proposition 1A have parlayed $4.3 million in contributions and anger at state politicians into a solid advantage in recent polls. The measure, stemming from this year's bitter budget fight, would place long-term spending restrictions on state government and extend recent tax increases for up to two years. Major donors to No on 1A, state records show, include the California State Council of Service Employees International Union, $1.3 million; California...

Has California's day of fiscal reckoning, postponed for years by political tricks and hide-the-pea financial schemes, finally arrived? It might seem so, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Thursday that the recession has taken a huge bite out of the state budget, overwhelming the new taxes that he and the Legislature enacted just three months ago to close an already immense deficit. There are a couple of ways of looking at Schwarzenegger's declaration that the 2009-10 deficit had jumped from supposedly zero just three months ago to as much as $21.3 billion if voters don't suddenly change their minds and approve...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will direct his administration to send 5,000 layoff notices to state workers Friday, according to a source familiar with the governor's budget plan. The Republican governor plans to eliminate 5,000 workers by the end of June, ..

Nancy Pelosi is watching California's Prop 1A intently. In only a hundred days and change, President Barack Obama has committed $6.5 trillion to waste, fraud, and abuse. That’s $6,500,000,000,000.00, which is more than all the costs of World War I and World War II combined. And you think it can’t get worse? Believe me, it can. Things have gotten so bad, that even in my home state of California a Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is urging support for a massive $16 billion tax hike which is deceptively masquerading as a measure to put a lid on out-of-control government spending. You...

On Jan. 10, 2008, it was 22,000. This past New Year's Eve, it was 15,000. Two weeks ago Friday, it was 8,000. Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration – looking down the barrel again at a massive budget crisis – is talking about letting 38,000 inmates out of prison before their time is up. Proposals 1 and 2 never got off the ground when the governor's budget writers eventually found the money to keep the prisons full. More recently, the administration never followed up with legislation to enact the early releases corrections Secretary Matt Cate announced on April 24. The latest...

he majorities rejecting the attempt to tax California into a brave new world are growing, and Arnold and his tax-and-spend-and-tax-again Democratic allies are facing an embarrassing meltdown in next week's vote in California. The tax hike crowd have spent massively on the initiatives and Arnold is stumping furiously, but the no vote is fueled by voter anger at the enormous surge in spending in the Golden State over the past decade, and by the refusal to make serious reforms in the way the state runs. The public pension problem is also beginning to come into view, and ordinary voters are...

May 13, 2009 Whitman: 'We can lay off 20,000 to 30,000 state employees' Republican Meg Whitman, who hopes to take Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's job in 2010, on Tuesday called for the Legislature to immediately cut the state government workforce by 10 percent in response to the state's growing fiscal problems. A press release put out by her campaign quotes from a speech she gave to the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce: "We haven't looked hard enough at where we can cut. We can lay off 20,000 to 30,000 state employees while prioritizing public safety and teachers.'' "We shouldn't have to...

In only a hundred days and change, President Barack Obama has committed $6.5 trillion to waste, fraud, and abuse. That's $6,500,000,000,000.00, which is more than all the costs of World War I and World War II combined. And you think it can't get worse? Believe me, IT CAN. Things have gotten so bad, that even in my home state of California a Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is urging support for a massive $16 billion tax hike which is deceptively masquerading as a measure to put a lid on out-of-control government spending. You read that right: A massive tax-hike -- Proposition...

They just reported the insider, big gov elite outspent the little people 20 to 1 and it's still losing *big*. Check this from the KFI link. From Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is concerned the public may be confused about Proposition 1A, the spending control measure he's backing on the May 19 ballot. That's because the Republican right, he asserts, is being "disingenuous" in spinning 1A as a tax increase. It's also because people like me, he says, write about how complicated the measure is. "It's already complicated as it is," the governor says, "but the more you write about...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told legislative leaders Monday the state's annual income tax collections are expected to fall this year for the first time since 1938, punctuating a budget shortfall that he said will reach $21.3 billion if voters reject a slate of ballot measures next week. With passage of the measures appearing unlikely, Schwarzenegger announced that he would release plans Thursday -- five days before the May 19 special election -- to show Californians the devastating consequences for government if the propositions fail. State finance officials have been drafting plans for cuts in fire services, prisons, schools and other areas...

Late word this evening that will get everyone's attention: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has informed legislative leaders that if three of the six budget-related ballot measures fail next Tuesday, the state faces a $21.3 billion deficit between now and next July. In a letter to the four legislators this afternoon, Schwarzenegger actually offered two new assessments from his budget team of what lies in store for California: a $15.4 billion shortfall if Propositions 1C, 1D, and 1E pass, and the aforementioned $21.3 billion if they fail. This comes after Schwarzenegger told reporters in Culver City today that he intends to release...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger painted a bleak picture today of what’s to come should budget-related state ballot measures fail next week. Fire stations will close, prisons will be forced to release inmates, schools will lay off more than 50,000 teachers, schools will be shut down for several weeks, and the state will have to borrow from local governments, Schwarzenegger warned.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has changed plans and will now propose two versions of his revised May budget on Thursday -- five days before the special election -- rather than after the voters speak. . . . "If on May 19 it passes, here's one scenario ... if those initiatives don't pass, then here's the other scenario with the more severe cuts."

Don't think of the May 19 ballot as a special election so much as an IQ test. California voters are being asked to approve six budget "reforms" that will supposedly fix the state's massive budget deficit and keep politicians from digging a big hole in the future. The titles and verbiage for each one are rather complex, but it's not any test of intelligence to figure out what the measures really mean. ... The real test comes with our decision about how to vote ... The underlying question for each of the propositions is the same: Are voters stupid enough...

State's future at stake in May 19 vote John Wildermuth,Matthew Yi May 9, 2009 If California voters reject a package of budget measures in next week's special election, it will set off a fiscal free-for-all that could set the state's course for years to come. Defeat of the measures on the May 19 ballot would chop nearly $6 billion in expected revenue from next year's budget, on top of a projected $8 billion deficit left by shrinking tax collections. Proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others to close that gap are driving a wildfire of criticism across the state. Deep...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5) ― Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that thousands of inmates could be forced out of state prisons if his proposed ballot measures fail in the upcoming special election. Schwarzenegger said he will open prison doors if voters don't approve the measures to close a projected $6 billion budget hole during the May 19th vote. ... The governor's plan would release 38,000 inmates, 19,000 of those are what the state considers low risk. The other 19,000 inmates are illegal immigrants whose offenses are said to be non-serious. The governor would commute their sentences and release all of them...

SACRAMENTO—Five of the six budget-related measures on California's May 19 special election ballot are trailing, particularly among voters who say they're closely following election news, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Thursday. "The voters who are really tuned in are really turned off," said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based research organization. "They see the state's budget situation as a big problem, but so far they don't like the solution." The six propositions, put on the ballot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers, are an attempt to deal with the state's...

California voters are standing firm in their opposition to the budget-related propositions on the May 19 ballot, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The PPIC's latest poll mirrors previous surveys showing strong resistance to all but Proposition 1F on elected officials' pay raises. That's even though voters are split on whether the governor and the Legislature should have called the election. Here are the numbers. The rest told pollsters they haven't made up their minds. Proposition 1A: 52 percent no, 35 percent yesProposition 1B: 47 percent no, 40 percent yesProposition 1C: 58 percent no, 32 percent yesProposition 1D:...

Same-sex marriage backers in California, anticipating a loss in court, are preparing to make their case at the ballot box in 2010 rather than waiting until 2012. "The right time is now," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told ABC News. "And if that means going back in 2010, I couldn't be more supportive." "Wait almost always means never," he added, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. California voters approved Proposition 8 in November, a change to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Although a decision has not yet been rendered in the legal challenge to Proposition 8, many gay marriage proponents...

The 'Plan B' scenarios if the special election measures are defeated continue to trickle out of the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This afternoon, a new one: the governor is prepared to propose a $2 billion suspension of the 2004 constitutional initiative protecting city and county revenues. Talk of suspending 2004's Proposition 1A comes on the heels of a meeting yesterday where Schwarzenegger aides told the firefighting community that voters rejecting the measures on the ballot in two weeks time would result in as many as 1,700 firefighting positions. One local government official on this afternoon's call said the plan...

Here are Rep. McClintock's recommendations for the May 19th Special Election. Prop 1A: Extend the Tax Increases. NO. This is the fig leaf that hides certain deficiencies suffered by the legislators who caved into pressure for the biggest tax increase in California's history. This measure EXTENDS the tax increases for up to two ADDITIONAL years in exchange for a spending limit that doesn't limit spending. The "spending limit" is laughable – it requires placing "unanticipated revenues" into a special fund that is then to be spent for a variety of additional purposes including education, debt service and health care. And...

What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP By Michelle Malkin  ?  May 4, 2009 02:21 PM George Will?s latest column on the sagging economy of California and the upcoming slate of massive tax-hike initiatives on the ballot only scratches the surface of what?s rotten in the formerly Golden State. The state GOP is a basket case. The party establishment epitomizes everything that is wrong with the Republican Party nationally: Cronyism, arrogance, waste, and leadership out of touch with its base. I reported on how grass-roots conservatives greeted California GOP chairman Ron Nehring with boos and heckles of ?Go...

Prospects are rapidly diminishing for the five ballot measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders say they need to keep the state budget from drowning in red ink. So, one might ask, what's Plan B? Rejection of three measures (Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E) would have a direct impact totaling nearly $6 billion on the 2009-10 budget, which was supposedly balanced by Schwarzenegger and legislators in February. Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor has already proclaimed that the 2009-10 plan is $8 billion out of whack, so rejection of those three measures would create a $14 billion hole. But wait, there's...

Following passage of the long-delayed state budget in February, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agreed to place proposals for voter approval onto a special statewide election scheduled for May 19. Now, with just three weeks to Election Day, a new Field Poll finds pluralities of likely voters lining up on the No side on five of six of the ballot measures.

Judging by the results of this week's Field polls, California voters: (a) Are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. (b) Don't give a rat's patootie about the May 19 special election. (c) Are highly skeptical that the half-dozen propositions on the aforementioned election's ballot are going to do much to buoy the state's sinking finances. The correct answer, based on interviews with veteran observers of the California political scene, as well as voters themselves, is (d) all of the above. "They are extremely leery of budget proposals coming out of Sacramento," said Jack Pitney, a professor...

Field Poll finds five of six California ballot measures failing April 29, 2009 California voters appear to be leaning toward "no" on five of six statewide propositions on the May 19 ballot, including measures that would boost the state's sagging budget and provide more funding for schools and colleges, according to a new Field Poll. The poll results come as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been campaigning hard in favor of Proposition 1A, which he said is crucial to helping fix the state's budget mess. Other Republicans oppose the measure, saying it is likely to bring new taxes. According to the...

A sturdy axiom of ballot- measure politics is that voters who are confused or uncertain about a proposition's effects will vote against it. That's why a measure's opposition forces often use advertising and other political tools not to make a conclusive case, but to plant doubt and/or confusion. Conversely, of course, proponents try to hammer home a simple, positive message. The six budget-related measures on the May 19 special election ballot are especially complex, as if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators purposely set out to make them as confusing as possible, with interrelated wordage, triggers and poison pills. And that...

In an angry rebuff to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Party leaders, voters are turning thumbs down on a package of budget reform measures on the May 19 special election ballot, a new Field Poll shows. Support for five of the six measures, all of which require a majority vote, is no greater than 40 percent and each is running between nine and 27 percentage points behind the opposition. Only Proposition 1F, which would bar pay raises for government leaders in budget deficit years, looks like a winner, leading 71 percent to 24 percent. More than 70 percent of...

From Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is concerned the public may be confused about Proposition 1A ... That's because the Republican right, he asserts, is being "disingenuous" in spinning 1A as a tax increase. "Explain it a little bit simpler," he urges in a phone chat. ... "We should just simply describe 1A as a measure that will fix the broken budget system once and for all so that you never have to make those severe cuts again ... And you never have to go back to the people for tax increases again. That's it." ... "It's not fair, really,...

As early voting begins on six state of California ballot propositions, opposition is growing to 5 of the 6 measures, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego, and KFSN-TV Fresno. Because turnout in a special election is typically low, and because voters do not focus until the last minute, many 'likely voters' interviewed by SurveyUSA say they are not yet certain how they will vote on the measures. Any outcome remains possible. On Proposition 1A, The Rainy Day Budget Stabilization and Accountability Fund, 42% of voters today are certain...

Proposition 1A would extend recently enacted tax hikes from 2010-11 to 2012-13 at a cost to taxpayers of $16 billion and create a budget “rainy-day” fund to be tapped when revenue declined. Crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders, it is by far the most important measure on the May 19 special election ballot. It is also by far the worst measure on the ballot. We offer three compelling reasons to reject it. The first reason is the grossly dishonest, ends-justifies-the-means manner by which the Sacramento political establishment is trying to force Proposition 1A down voters'...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Director Rob Reiner is back on the campaign trail — and he's not happy about it. Reiner told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he has joined forces with children's advocates to defeat a measure on next month's special election ballot. Proposition 1D would steer money away from a childhood development program Reiner championed a decade ago. The "When Harry Met Sally" filmmaker criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California lawmakers for their management of state finances. "They failed miserably," he said. "So now what are they going to do? The thing that they always do. They try...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is selling access to a pair of social soirees at his Brentwood mansion to deep-pocketed political donors willing to hand over at least $100,000 for his political fund.Donors who cut six-figure checks will be able to sip cocktails with the celebrity governor and first lady Maria Shriver at their Southern California home this Thursday and dine again there early next month, according to the four-page fundraising invitation obtained by The Bee.The events represent the kind of access to the state's chief executive that makes government watchdogs wary. "These sums may be a small price (for donors) to...

This just in from friends on the scene... California Republican Party (CRP) opposes Prop 1A-1F Mike Villines & Tom Campbell had spoken in favor of 1A and Steve Poizner against.

You and every other Californian are being targeted by Sacramento politicians to pay more, much more, in taxes. On top of the just approved highest state tax increase in U.S. history, the politicians want you and your family to pay an additional $1,000 or more per year. To get your money, the politicians have placed Prop. 1A on the May 19 Special Election ballot. This giant tax increase is disguised as a "Spending Cap" and "Budget Reform." Prop. 1A is a TAX EXTENSION of the new taxes just approved — taxes that have already made us the highest taxed state...

The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices.And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and massive borrowing, now has imploded: A projected deficit of $42 billion over two years has forced the legislature to cut some spending while increasing taxes by a hoped-for $28 billion. Nonetheless a deficit of $8 billion to $14 billion looms for the next fiscal year. That is why the legislature and...