Free Republic

<p>By now, political analysts of every stripe have read the entrails of the March 2 primary election and have divined meaningful information about the "will of the people" as they "spoke" on Election Day. I'm never sure how much any given election actually means, given how little most people know about what or for whom they are voting, but some broad conclusions are valid, nevertheless.</p>

<p>California Treasurer Phil Angelides promised to work quickly to sell a record $15 billion deficit bond passed Tuesday, giving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a crucial victory in his bid to turn around the world's sixth-largest economy.</p> <p>A companion measure that would require a balanced budget and a state reserve fund to guard against future deficits also easily passed. Both measures had to be approved for either to take effect.</p>

<p>The following is a summary of the Register's positions on the state and local measures on the March 2 ballot.</p> <p>Proposition 55: No. It would float $12.3 billion in bonds to upgrade and build new classrooms for K-12 schools, the community colleges and the Cal State and UC systems. It's more debt, costing about $823 million a year to pay off over 30 years, for a state that can't balance its budget now.</p>

<p>Given the latest polls, there's a fair chance that, come Tuesday, California voters will approve Proposition 57, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion deficit bond, and reject Proposition 55, the $12.3 billion school construction and repair bond that appears on the same ballot.</p>

<p>Like doughnuts or deodorant, politics is about selling. And what sells a product isn't so much what the product does, but what the buyer thinks it does. Take Proposition 56. It doesn't really matter if it actually reforms the budget, because as long as people think they are getting budget reform, they will vote for it.</p>

<p>Proposition 57 authorizes the state to borrow up to $15 billion to pay off short-term loans that come due in June and to help close next year's budget gap, expected to be about $17 billion.</p> <p>Most experts agree that without the bonds, California's already bleak economic outlook would turn decidedly worse. The measure also could have an effect on other areas of the nation's economy, with Wall Street investors closely watching the vote.</p>

Received my unsolicited copy of the Fresno County Special Edition of the Election Special-March 2004, California Republican newsletter in today's mail.Noticably absent was any discussion of or recommendations regarding Prop 57/58 although Prop 55, Prop 56 and Cedillo's follow up to SB60 were discussed in some detail.Whatsup?

Support swells for $15 billion bond Poll results on Prop. 57 indicate bipartisan campaign is effective Governor gets positive marks in latest survey SACRAMENTO – In a dramatic turnaround, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion fiscal-recovery bond measure on next Tuesday's ballot is supported by half the likely voters, up from one-third who backed Proposition 57 last month, according to a new poll. The results of the latest statewide Field Poll suggest the bipartisan campaign by the Republican governor and Democratic state Controller Steve Westly is working. Schwarzenegger and Westly are promoting the bond measure and a companion balanced budget amendment,...

Educators tout bond FUNDS: Approval of Prop. 55 could bring millions to Inland districts to build or renovate schools. California voters will decide next month whether dilapidated classrooms in the Inland area and across the state will get makeovers and whether hundreds of new schools will be built. The passage of Prop. 55, a $12.3 billion statewide school-construction bond on the March 2 ballot, would pump millions of dollars into Riverside and San Bernardino counties' schools. It could mean the difference between crumbling classrooms and modern facilities, local educators said. "There is a critical need to renovate facilities," said Alice...

Governor will have to sell skeptical Dems on Prop. 57 If Proposition 57 fails, he would fall back on a $10 billion borrowing plan left over from former Gov. Gray Davis' administration SACRAMENTO -- Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion deficit-bailout bond on the March 2 ballot faces an uncertain fate largely because many normally bond-loving Democrats -- particularly in the Bay Area -- aren't sold this time around. "This is unusual," said Mark Baldassare, director of the Public Policy Institute of California poll. "They're not buying it." Analysts say the latest PPIC survey shows that many Democrats aren't embracing...

<p>SACRAMENTO – With less than two weeks until the election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "fiscal-recovery" bond is within striking distance of winning - or losing.</p> <p>The biggest wild card: whether enough voters know that the $15 billion bond-borrowing measure, Proposition 57, and its companion "Balanced Budget Act,'' Proposition 58, are part of Schwarzenegger's grand scheme return California to fiscal health.</p>

<p>Last in a series of stories on the March 2 ballot propositions.</p> <p>It's the other bond measure on the March 2 ballot: Proposition 55 would authorize $12.3 billion for construction of school buildings to relieve overcrowding and repair existing facilities.</p>

About 100 statewide organizations have endorsed Proposition 55, including the Gray Panthers as well as the Painting and Decorating Contractors of California. Nearly 300 local groups - from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles to the Woodside School District - have signed on to support the $12.3 billion school facilities bond on the March ballot. In addition, there are 53 state legislators on the thumbs-up list so far, along with 26 individuals, including former California Community Colleges Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum. One is really hard-pressed to find much formal opposition to Prop. 55. Instead, the bond's most daunting challenge...

<p>Any credit counselor will tell you that, if you have a debt problem, the first step is to stop digging the hole deeper. It's a lesson we hope voters apply to Proposition 55 in the March 2 election.</p> <p>Prop. 55 would float $12.3 billion in bonds to upgrade and build new classrooms for K-12 schools and community colleges, the California State University and the University of California. Of the total, $10 billion would go to K-12 schools, $2.3 billion to higher education.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO – Several key Democratic leaders - including the state's two U.S. senators - lent their less-than-enthusiastic support Tuesday to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond measure.</p> <p>U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, legislative leaders and the California Democratic Party announced they are backing Propositions 57 and 58, the governor's twin budget-related measures on the March 2 ballot.</p>

<p>It would be a shame, just as California was starting to take the right path to restore a semblance of fiscal sanity, if California voters were misled into supporting an initiative that took them backwards.</p> <p>We don't use the term "misled" lightly, believing the average voter to be perfectly capable of making informed judgments. But the campaign to promote Proposition 56 on the March 2 ballot, just like the initiative itself, is terribly dishonest.</p>

<p>State budgets could be passed more easily, with only a 55% vote. But so could tax increases.</p> <p>SACRAMENTO – Every summer, it's the singular drama that consumes the state Capitol: For weeks and even months, lawmakers haggle, dicker and struggle toward a two-thirds majority needed to pass a budget.</p>

MONTEREY, Calif. -- Students at La Mesa Elementary School in Monterey walk to class beneath scaffolding that lines the hallway. It's not there for construction; it's there to ensure that the unstable and rotting ceiling doesn't fall on the children. "It will at least keep it off the kids' heads if the roof comes down," said principal Roger Dahl. Like many campuses, La Mesa has "perpetually deferred" maintenance and repairs because they lacked the money to do the work, Dahl said. Now, the school needs $250,000 to fix the roof over the hall and the teachers' lounge, where leaks caused...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO - Passage of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond on the March ballot won't resolve an unwillingness in Sacramento to make politically unpopular decisions needed to balance the state budget, investors and rating agency officials agreed Thursday.</p> <p>At the second annual California Municipal Finance conference in San Francisco, state Controller Steve Westly and state Finance Director Donna Arduin said the bond measure is the only practical short-term solution to the state's budget crisis.</p>

<p>Proposition 57, the proposed $15 billion bond deal to pay off the state's deficit, will "get us back on our feet," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told 160 residents of an upscale retirement community here Thursday.</p> <p>Saying the state's financial troubles are fixable, the new Republican governor urged voters approve the bonds and a companion measure, Proposition 58 -- a constitutional amendment that mandates balanced budgets and prohibits future borrowing.</p>