Posted on 10/12/2008 8:56:11 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The dozen measures on California's Nov. 4 general election ballot would cost taxpayers – and their children and grandchildren – $78.9 billion over the next 30 years, a Bee analysis has found.
That includes $33.2 billion for four bond proposals, $30 billion for drug rehabilitation programs and another $15.5 billion to ensure a minimum amount of state funds for local jails and other law enforcement programs.
On the plus side, if the drug rehab program worked, it could save taxpayers $32.5 billion and reduce the overall ballot's potential cost to $44.4 billion.
But that's still a daunting price tag in an economy that is currently conjuring more visions of bread lines and soup kitchens than high-speed railroads or children's hospitals.
"I think with the way things are, many people are going to vote 'no' on almost everything," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "It's a bad time to be asking for money for anything."
Nonetheless, a disparate herd of proposition proponents – from out-of-state billionaires to animal rights advocates – are asking Californians to come across for their causes on Nov. 4.
Figuring out just how much they are asking for can be a tricky business.
The most reliable source is generally considered to be the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, which breaks down ballot measure verbiage for the official state voter information guide.
But even legislative analysts do some guesstimating when it comes to putting a price tag on propositions.
"Things can turn out differently than you think they will," said Dan Carson, a deputy legislative analyst. "We take our best shot at estimating how it will play out based on the way it's written."
Some of the formulas used are fairly straightforward.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
No bailout for California!
Drug programs promoted in the past by the State have never worked. What makes them think it will work now. It’s just money going to the underworld. The state is broke, where are they going to get all this money? The answer is easy............higher taxes.
also easy.. DRill offshore.
No , wait, this is California, where common sense is forbidden.
The only money Prop I’m voting YES on, is Prop 12, which is funding for the Cal Veterans home loan program.
I have heard that these bond proposals are in trouble even among the dems and their illegal alien voting base.
I was going to vote NO on all bonds including 12 but I’m rethinking it after your post.
Vote YES on Prop 11 - election districts boundaries to be drawn by panel of citizens, not politicians. The first step to cleaning up Sacramento.
The next step is valid photo ID at the polls.
The Cal Veterans home loan program is the ONLY bond measure on the CA ballot that will not cost taxpayers anything!
Here’s how it works: CA sells bonds that finance home loans to CA VETS. The CA Vets pay their mortgages, which repays the bonds, including interest. This program has a 100% track record of the bonds being repaid by the VETS themselves.
ZERO out of pocket for the taxpayers!
I vote against almost every bond issue that comes up, but they all get passed anyway.
The schools consume half the general fund, yet every election there is another bond for schools and every election it gets passed. It’s “for the children” donchaknow.
The only bonds I generally vote for are for infrastructure improvement. It is a fact that infrastructure improvements pay back in multiples of the cost. Last I read, which was many years ago, infrastructure paid back $8 for every $1 expended.
If they asked for bonds to build new dams, I would vote for that. If they asked for bonds to help update the power grid, I would vote for that.
Just about everything else, I keep voting down until California lives within its means and pays as it goes from taxes, not from borrowing. Yet every election, the flaming idiot do-gooder socialist electorate passes every bond issue on the ballot as if it is not really spending.
The bullet train is a good example of a boondoggle that HAS to be defeated. CalTrain is already heavily subsidized by taxpayes, as are almost all light rail systems. Even the San-Franciso/Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), with is constantly full trains, loses money. It only collects 55% of operating costs so the other 45% is subsidized. The bullet train is very neat and I would love to ride on it. It won’t work and will waste huge amounts of money at a time when California needs cut spending dramatically.
At least it won’t pass. All of the bonds are going to be shot down this year. Voters are rightfully scared about the economy and, along with fresh memories of the 3-month delay passing this year’s budget, even they aren’t so stupid as to float a bunch of bonds this year. I expect the idiots to wise up just long enough to vote “no” on all California bonds this year. But then, they are idiots, so I won’t be shocked if some bonds pass. Furious, but not shocked.
Oh, man! opening up drilling off the California coast would flood the state with a huge injection of easy money — and more importantly it would be REAL money from capital improvements and economic growth, not funny money like a housing bubble.
Man, you nailed it. The idiot LibDemCommies will never allow it. The people have to take back this state... Oops I keep forgetting, my fellow California voters ARE THE PROBLEM. They are the ones who RETURN the communist idiots back to the legislature year after year after year. No matter who is governor, we have the same structural budget problems year after year.
I can’t wait to retire and leave this POS communist state and relocate to the hills of Virginia. Only 12 more years, baby! I’M OUTTA HERE!
Yes, I can vote to support the Cal Veterans. I’m constantly shocked at how poorly we treat our Vets. Its more or less sink or swim. They pay a price and get next to nothing in return. I need to read the proposition, because I don’t trust ANYTHING until I read it through, see who supports it, etc... But yes, honest Veterans benefits are something I would support, but it still makes me furious to do so with bonds.
Put it in the damn budget and make it pay as you go. There is just NO reason to have to hold it off books for a future tax increase. Anything important that requires funding should be on the books, not off the books. But this prop sounds like it is something I will support. Just wish they would fund it the right way.
That makes sense.
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