Posted on 08/25/2007 9:31:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
"YES ON 1A STOPS OUR EXISTING GAS TAXES FROM BEING USED FOR OTHER PROJECTS."
That, jarring capital letters and all, is a direct quote from Proposition 1A, which California voters approved last fall along with four infrastructure bonds.
The argument for Proposition 1A also told us that the measure "closes the loophole in the law and ensures that the gas taxes you already pay are spent only on transportation projects benefiting California's 20 million drivers."
That was the line.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's legislative leaders knew voters would be reluctant to approve $40 billion in bonds, for fear that Sacramento would stop funding basic infrastructure needs from the general fund. Proposition 1A was designed to alleviate those fears, and it worked.
That is, it worked until state leaders signed off on a new budget plan this week that siphons $1.3 billion, or 40 percent, of gas sales-tax funds away from transit projects.
So much for the lofty promises of Proposition 1A.
It turns out state leaders were able to seize on a technicality - gas taxes aren't the same thing as gas sales taxes - and funnel money away from transportation, just as they always have.
Never mind that that $1.3 billion came from "spillover" gas-tax revenues - money generated when gas prices rise faster than inflation. Under a 1971 law, spillover money is supposed to pay for public transit projects.
But with a little book-cooking and legalistic phrasing, the politicians were able to find a way around that law, as well as the plain assurances of Proposition 1A.
Now last year's infrastructure bonds are Sacramento's very justification for slashing desperately needed transit funding. reason that because bond revenue will help pay for congestion relief, they don't have to do their part.
"They're basically saying to us that since you got Proposition 1B money, you can use that money instead," explains Michael Turner, government-relations manager for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The politicians The cuts will cost Los Angeles County about $336 million. Without those funds, critical local transportation projects are in jeopardy. That includes widening the Golden State Freeway at the Orange County Line, bus operations and the Exposition Light Rail project. extending the Orange Line busway from Warner Center to Chatsworth,
The state's leaders have sold us a lie - once again. They get the money, and all we get to show for it is dismal, crumbling infrastructure.
That was the line.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's legislative leaders knew voters would be reluctant to approve $40 billion in bonds, for fear that Sacramento would stop funding basic infrastructure needs from the general fund. Proposition 1A was designed to alleviate those fears, and it worked.
That is, it worked until state leaders signed off on a new budget plan this week that siphons $1.3 billion, or 40 percent, of gas sales-tax funds away from transit projects. So much for the lofty promises of Proposition 1A.
Same old same old.
Hey Norm! Send us a little sunshine over here.
I don’t know why Californians put up with it. The liberals, sure. But I don’t know why the Conservatives and Libertarians haven’t led a mass revolt.
FWIW, one of the biggest fiscal problems in CA is that various laws and amendments have mandated that funds from “X” source be spent only on “Y.” This removes the flexibility that is essential when trying to manage such a massive budget.
No comment on the specifics of this particular case, just on the general concept.
would it do any good to go to the courst and ask them to uphold the initiative
I hear ya. It is safe to say that California and the way it both collects and spends is a mess and has been for a number of years.
The only ones who truly benefit are lawyers who are in court all too oft arguing for this or that side of the interpretation of the law being carried out.
The problem with trying to reform anything here these days is that many of the same folks that created the mess are being expected to the clean the mess up and not stick their own little special backdoor options in place of what we have at present.
Ain’t gonna happen.
They are nothing but a bunch of liberal crooks. No Lawyer should be allowed to be in government. What about a law for that.
Hi Eggs! My wife will be in the Scotts Valley area today, sunshine always follows her around. ;-)
Mainly because Sacramento’s voting power comes from Los Angeles and San Francisco. That’s why some want the state split in half. Put LA and San Francisco in Southern California and then you will have Northern California that can do its own thing.
Actually all goes to “Z” - pension funds or paying people not to work. The budget has almost doubled and yet no services are new or provide to the tax payer and the 700 million he promised to line item veto will not be done either as the press is already covering how evil he is taking money from children.
Why wasn’t this loophole to the supposed loophole closer detected?
Because they opted for a mass exudus.
exodus. {retroactive spell check}
It WAS detected and that is why many of us recommended voting NO. McClintock recommended a YES vote, but acknowledged it was weak relative to raids, saying: "Though it’s more window dressing than relief, this measure makes it marginally harder to do so."
I and others, recommended voting NO on Prop 1A because it also allowed them to defer repayment, by 7 years, of Billions in past borrowings (just like the sham Prop 76 so-called "spending cap") and specifically let them continue to raid the Transportation through 2008/2009 and to raid the fund twice a decade. (See here and here and here).
I had forgotten that there is a ballot initiative that qualified by accident that should be coming up in 2008 that will truly (we hope) protect Transportation funds, so hopefully this will be the last time GrayDavis Schwarzenegger can pull this trick. (See here). We need to dust this one off and fully support it (unless, of course, Prop 1A language deceptively negated it already).
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And he’s turned the CA Republican Party and the entire state government into a “ship of fools!”
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