Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 10/05/2006 9:04:22 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Reading all the specific earmarks of funds in Proposition 84 set our suspicious journalistic minds to wondering: There are so many organizations slated to get money from this $5.4 billion bond measure, sold as being for water quality and water supply, that it began to look like a cynical "pay to play" initiative, in which those who paid to get the initiative on the ballot get much larger sums to spend once the bonds are sold.
Remember "pay to play?" The Planning and Conservation League perfected this technique with 1996's Proposition 204. While writing the ballot measure it sought donations from local environmental and community organizations. Lo and behold, those organizations that had contributed seed money got big grants. What a coincidence!
Since 1996 five similar bond measures have been passed with similar structures. Not all the projects funded by this technique are unworthy, but it is a cynical use of the initiative system whereby private and public/private organizations dip deeply into the taxpayers' pockets for projects of widely varying quality and necessity.
Does Prop. 84 fit the pattern? Well, the California Association of Local Conservation Corps contributed some $70,000 to the signature-gathering effort. And its members are due to get $32.5 million if Prop. 84 passes. Not a bad return on investment.
--snip
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, for example, gave $1.1 million to the Proposition 87 (oil taxes to fund alternative fuels research) campaign shortly after forming an ethanol manufacturing company that would be eligible for subsidies under Prop. 87. And Proposition 86, the cigarette tax, would channel funds to the hospital industry, which helped to get it on the ballot.
--snip
The best way for voters to stop such cynical behavior is to reject these and other self-dealing measures.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
"The "pay to play" phenomenon amounts to a perversion of the initiative process – which was designed to give the people a chance to address issues the legislature was unable or unwilling to handle – into a method for steering taxpayers' money into the hands of special interests.
Using halo words like "clean water" or "clean energy" to funnel money to special interests may not be illegal, but it is hardly ethical."
Self serving fool the taxpayer into funding your agenda ping. Interesting take on these propositions.
ya, I guess it goes to show no matter how the power is spread corruption will follow. Education and ideology of the people themselves is the only answer to it all.
Khosla, John Doerr and their Kleiner Perkins buddies no longer look for legitimate capital in the private sector. It's much easier to fleece the taxpayer using California's initiative process, offering up misleading Propositions from which they benefit. For the past five years (at least), the ballot has been strewn with garbage laws with a goal of making the select few wealthier at taxpayer expense.
I agree. We are inundated with garbage laws that benefit only the fat cats.
Well, I agree. I think the people would educate themselves just fine if they were free from the influences you site. Thus, attacking government schools and media regulations (ownership, regulations, fairness doctorines) and promoting truly free charter schools as a first step will lead to positive results IMO. :)
You're right. Truly free charter schools would be a great leap forward!
DUH! Ya think?
Going out on a limb with that one aren't ya? /sarc
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