Every California conservative I know (including those on FR that are very well informed) opposed Prop 76.
Here are some of the reasons:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503116/posts?page=5#5
It was a rare moment than any of us broke with Senator McClintock who was, in this case, going along to be a good “team player” showing support for Arnie, IMO. Since that time, he’s given up on Arnold’s faux-conservative proposals.
This proposition was the worst of worst as in many cases it did the opposite of what was described. The provision regarding education formulas that you cite actually guaranteed that education spending would NEVER go down. See more at the link above.
Yes, I am aware that many conservatives voted against Prop 76, because it didn’t go far enough. Just as many conservatives allowed the Democrats to retake the house and Senate because Bush is a New World Order moderate who didn’t go far enough to please conservatives.
Just like Conservatives would not vote for a social liberal like Giuliani and would let Hillary ascend the throne as a result.
Sometimes you have to take the best deal you have and not the dream you will never achieve.
My take on the changes to school funding are that Prop 76 was a net good thing. It looks like they eliminated the automatic return to high spending in the good years, and the trade-off was no automatic reduction in spending during bad years. Since we tend to see many more good years than bad, this would have reduced school spending, in my opinion. By keeping the automatic floor, we are stuck with the automatic ceiling, and we are currently paying the price.
Prop 76 was voted down. We kept the status quo. And you are telling me we are better off, as if somebody on a white horse is going to come in and give you the ideal spending restraints you want in a socialist run blue state. This is never going to happen. So by voting against 76, we get stuck with the status quo and we are going to see one massive budget crisis after another.