If passed, the measure will:
Limit state spending growth to the average revenue increase in the three previous years.
Allow the governor to make midyear spending cuts if the budget falls out of balance and the Legislature does not act.
Weaken the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee.
Stretch out repayment of $3.8 billion owed schools.
The limit in Proposition 76 on the Nov. 8 ballot is based on how much money the state takes in, and an improving economy is boosting state tax revenue. Simply put, increasing revenues could raise the spending limit.
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Nothing in Proposition 76 prevents a tax increase.
Weaken the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee.
Stretch out repayment of $3.8 billion owed schools.
Duly noted. This is not a spending “control” measure, or at least not the kind of control that people expected when they elected Schwarzenegger, the self described “fiscal conservative.”
"The key is not to crank government spending down," said Tom Campbell... "It's just to spend no more than we have."
Which current law already prohibits them from doing. Arnold ran on a platform of “We have a spending problem.” It is due time he be reminded of that.
Schwarzenegger is still struggling with one of the big problems that propelled him into office in the historic 2003 recall election: State spending continues to exceed revenues, now for six years in a row.
And the last two budgets were proposed by the Governor, and approved by the Governor--despite his power of line item veto.
To paper over the gap, the state has borrowed $25 billion from various sources, including an unprecedented long-term deficit bond of up to $15 billion approved by voters last year at the urging of Schwarzenegger.
Despite opposition from fiscal conservatives.
Schwarzenegger's decision to push for a new spending control this year seems to confirm the view of critics that Proposition 58's requirements for a "balanced" budget and a rainy-day reserve fund, both easily waived by the Legislature, are ineffective.
As those who opposed both Prop 57 and Prop 58 predicted.
The "Gann limit" ... loosened in 1990 by Proposition 111... Among the main backers of the initiative that lifted the Gann limit are the business groups that helped write Schwarzenegger's Proposition 76.
Proposition 111 was also pushed by a Republican conservative Governor Deukmejian. These business groups are operating for their own interests--not those of the average taxpayer. Prop 76 is another screw job masked under a glossy republican cover.
Nothing in Proposition 76 prevents a tax increase... A tax increase, however, is not on any to-do list for Schwarzenegger
But it is on the to-do-list of Phil Angelides and other democrats, who may very well hold office soon.
Schwarzenegger says .. "Pass Proposition 76 or face higher taxes such as the car tax, income tax, sales tax, and even property taxes."
Or, perhaps the Governor should be forced to consider the obvious alternative, the one he promised during his campaign: CUT SPENDING.
The initiative eliminates two parts of Proposition 98: a provision, called "Test 3," that lowers the school-funding guarantee in years when tax revenue slows, and a "maintenance factor" that requires the lost funds be repaid later.
The elimination of “Test 3” guarantees that education spending can NEVER go down! The maintenance factor change is a good change--but at what expense?
Schools currently are owed $3.8 billion ... Proposition 76 would repay that debt over 15 years
More deferral of expense puts us further in debt.
The campaign for Proposition 76 cites a study by the California Taxpayers Association, a business-backed group, that concludes that Proposition 76 would increase school funding.
More spending is not what I want. I will vote NO.