Posted on 02/16/2009 8:53:28 PM PST by SmithL
Regardless of when a new budget deal gets passed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still is going to need help from California's voters to close the state's $42 billion budget gap, and that help may not be easy to come by.
Although the Legislature spent the weekend in nearly continuous session, trying to find the votes to pass the new fiscal plan, legislators still face the prospect of putting billions of dollars in borrowing, revenue shifts and budget revisions on the ballot in a statewide special election later this year.
"Several key components of the budget agreements need to go back to the voters because they're revisions of ballot measures the voters originally approved," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance.
A special election vote will be anything but a slam dunk.
The biggest item on the ballot will be a plan that allows the state to borrow $5 billion and repay it with future revenues from the state lottery. When California voters authorized the lottery in 1984, its sole purpose was to bring in extra money for state schools.
The new ballot measure will allow the state to use the lottery "to provide funds for other public purposes" and borrow against future revenues.
But 61 percent of likely voters opposed the lottery borrowing in a poll last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, showing how much work the governor has to do to turn those numbers around.
Other measures expected to be on the ballot for the special election, which doesn't yet have a date, include revisions to 1998's Proposition 10, a measure by movie director Rob Reiner that put a 50-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes for new children's programs, and 2004's Proposition 63, which taxed the richest Californians to support new mental health programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Oh he’ll get help. The unions are lining up right now with their checkbooks out to lie to the uninformed about closing schools, no firefighters, no policemen, etc.
Jeez, what a mess. I just left a message with Assburn and told him to rethink selling his soul and our future for a few magic beans. We’ll see.
Cheers,
SZ
The teacher's union will fight having lottery funds diverted to other purposes.
Of course they will. “It’s for the children.” “We owe them a better future.” “We’re underpaid, overworked and still our products can’t Read, Write or do simple math.”
If I see or hear one of the teachers in my sons school or any school in our area, pull this crap, I’d be hard pressed not to flatten that probiscus on their face.
SZ
My votes will be NO!!!
Maybe these liberals can go to court and get a judge to order new taxes, new spending, etc.
I’m still frustrated about the homosexual marriage court order. And the fact that Prop. 8 may be overturned, meaning that voters wouldn’t have had the right to vote on marriage in the first place.
So another logical area for judges is this area of public spending, right? Just find a liberal judge to order tax increases to pay for liberal expenditures, saying that schools and healthcare and bullet trains and all the rest are a constitutional right that must be funded. It makes as much sense as a court order for homosexual marriage. That way these liberals can just bypass the expected resistance from voters approving these changes.
I will vote for you, Ahnuld.....to leave the country.
The cap is designed to fail with all the gimmicks and is toothless, anyway. When you have Karen Bass and Parsky designing this "reform," you can't expect much. When Republicans take a close look, I don't think it will be a favorite--they will know they have been had... again.
I suspect there’s going to be a vicious internecine battle between the competing special interests on this one. Should be fun.
I got an idea...
CUT THE DAMN SPENDING!
You radical! (grin)
They called Reagan a radical. DB is in good company.
"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
"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
Voters passed Arnie's $15 billion dollar borrowing bonanza and his $40 billion bogus infrastructure bonds. Voters passed the $6 billion stem-cell research scam. Voters passed the $9 billion high-speed-rail boondoggle. And on and on and on.
Intelligence and voters are not things I've seen together at the ballot box.
Our county is among the poorest in the state with a very high child abuse rate. We have used our Prop 10 money to establish 10 Community Resource Centers around the county (6,300 sq. miles.) With a physical facility, we can provide parenting classes, home visitation services, family based substance abuse relapse prevention, and dental services for children - many who have never seen a dentist.
With the Centers and prop 63 funding, we were able to create 10 drop in centers for $90,000, while a neighboring county created one for $250,000.
It would be a travesty for those funds to be diverted to pay for other programs.
I would
From what I’ve read, the proposal is to divert Prop 10 funds away from Rob Reiner’s First-5 toward more child care. I haven’t seen any specifics, as yet.
Below is a quote from an Assembly Budget Paper handed out on Saturday:
“• Prop. 10: ½ of state and local commission funds diverted to pay for state children’s health programs for 5 years.”
PS, your post ended with “I would.” Did your post get truncated or?
ca republican reps we are watching this vote , if you vote for higher taxes you are showing your true colors
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