Free Republic

A pro-Proposition 87 commercial featuring former Vice President Al Gore -- his first television advertisement since he last ran for office -- was unveiled Monday at a Palm Springs hotel.

SACRAMENTO In any other year, a $60 million opposition campaign fueled by a deep-pockets industry would spell nearly certain doom for a California ballot initiative. It still might. But the fight over Proposition 87, the oil-production tax, could be different. The infusion of $40 million by a Hollywood producer has given environmentalists pushing the initiative the financial firepower to respond punch-for-punch to the global petroleum companies that oppose it. The battle over the so-called oil tax has become the costliest initiative campaign in California history and has led to a flood of television advertising throughout the state. The campaigns for...

California voted three times to elect Al Gore to national office, twice in the 1990s as Bill Clinton’s running mate, then in 2000 for president. The former vice president carried California in a landslide over George W. Bush as part of his national popular vote victory in the presidential race. Now he’s back campaigning in California, appearing in his first TV commercial since his own campaign, on behalf of Proposition 87, the oil extraction tax for alternative fuels research. The ad will begin airing throughout California later this afternoon. The campaign will unveil the ad with events in 11 cities...

The Yes on Prop. 87 campaign has a new face. It's Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States whose latest venture includes a new film about the dangers of global warming.A new 30-second television spot featuring Gore is the latest salvo by the initiative's supporters in the ongoing media blitz to influence the vote on Nov. 7. The opponents haven't been sitting idle, financed mainly by oil giants, the No on 87 campaign has been arguing that a new oil severance tax to help pay for research and development, and production of alternative fuels will result in...

The "Yes on 87" campaign began airing a television ad last week targeting Californians' concerns about America's dependence on foreign oil.Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Laura Mecoy of The Bee's Los Angeles Bureau.• NARRATOR: We buy their oil. They burn our flag. California is held hostage by the oil companies. We are dangerously dependent on foreign oil. It's time to declare our energy independence. Prop. 87 means freedom from foreign oil. With more wind and solar power. Made in California. We have a choice. We can be secure. We can be free. Yes on...

CALIFORNIA voters should keep this news from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office in mind when they vote in November: State operating budget shortfalls under the spending plan are expected to reach "nearly $4 billion in 2007-08 and nearly $5 billion in 2008-09." Then voters should reject Propositions 86, 87 and 88, because the three measures would raise taxes without fixing the structural shortfall. Good-government types call measures such as these "ballot-box budgeting" -- special interests cook up initiatives designed to appeal to voters because they dedicate spending to a pet cause. Voters believe that in approving these measures, they ensure...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't trust Proposition 87. This measure would sock it to the guys everybody loves to hate - the oil companies. But it's not as clear-cut as it sounds. It would impose a tax on oil production to support $4 billion in expenditures to develop and promote alternative-energy technologies as well as reduce petroleum use. While Prop. 87 claims to prohibit the oil companies from passing the increases on to consumers, does anyone believe that won't ultimately happen? And how will the state prove any increase is directly tied to the tax and not some other factor? It would be...

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...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger outspent his Democratic rival, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, by more than 4-1 over the last three months, according to campaign reports filed late Thursday. But Angelides began October with a slight edge in campaign cash. Schwarzenegger, leading in the polls, spent $14.4 million in July, August and September and had $2.4 million left to begin the last five weeks of the race. Angelides, trailing by double-digit figures in two recent polls, spent $3.4 million during the same three-month period and had $2.8 million left over. He also had a slight edge in fundraising since the...

California has an oil addiction. As every self-help professional knows, to break an addiction you have to face the problem and admit you're hooked. The arguments against Proposition 87 sound as hollow as an alcoholic promising to stop after just one more drink. Proposition 87 would develop cleaner, cheaper fuels for our vehicles and build new energy industries and jobs here at home, in places such as Stockton, Salinas and San Diego. Despite valiant efforts and significant improvement for decades, the state still has the nation's worst air pollution, causing asthma, lung disease, cancer and crop damage, and exacerbating the...

Cigarette, energy initiatives still ahead as TV ads kick in. A statewide television blitz appears to be working in favor of oil and tobacco interests, as a Field Poll released Tuesday shows support dropping for two tax measures they oppose on the Nov. 7 ballot.Proposition 86, which would impose a $2.60-per-pack cigarette tax, enjoyed a 2-1 lead in July. But the gap narrowed in the new survey, conducted Sept. 14-24: 53 percent of likely voters were in support, compared with 40 percent opposed.Proposition 87's double-digit lead shrank considerably, as well. The alternative energy tax initiative's 52 percent to 31 percent...

The state doesn't need an oil company 'extortion tax' to pay for clean energy research, already a booming segment in the venture capital industry. WHEN GAS PRICES GO THROUGH the roof, two things inevitably happen: Voters see red, and all kinds of nutty proposals are floated aiming to make oil companies share their pain. Hence Proposition 87, which would impose an oil extraction tax on companies that drill in California and use the proceeds to pay for alternative fuel research. Even by the warped standards of ballot initiatives, Proposition 87 — the result of confused economic thinking — is deceptively...

LOS ANGELES - Movie producer Stephen L. Bing is believed to have set a new California campaign contribution record with Thursday's announcement that he has donated an "unprecedented" $40 million to Proposition 87, the oil tax initiative on the November ballot. While other wealthy activists have contributed large sums to their own political campaigns, no individual is known to have contributed this much to a ballot measure in California. Airline executive Al Checchi, for instance, gave more than $40 million to his 1998 gubernatorial campaign before losing the Democratic primary. Former President Bill Clinton praised Bing for his $40 million...

The cast of characters at Monday's press conference was unusual, to say the least. The participants represented each of the major factions in last year's special election: the drug companies, big-business Schwarzenegger allies and unions. But this time they were all on the same side. They all opposed Proposition 89, which would create publicly financed campaigns in California. "It's a murderers' row of political spenders in California," says Common Cause's Ned Wigglesworth, who supports Proposition 89. If, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows, then California's 2006 elections are one giant slumber party. Held in the twelfth-floor suite...

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has committed £1.6bn over 10 years to fight global warming.... will hand over all the profits from the Virgin Group's transport business to support the cause. (snip) [Branson] said the profits from Virgin's train and airline businesses would be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources.

Along with myriad decisions on elected officials, voters across the country will be asked to weigh in on ballot measures this fall. Taxpayers will have big stakes riding in a large number of these measures, but in one -- Proposition 87 in California -- there are important questions of both tax and spending policy at stake. Proposition 87 will raise $4 billion in state revenue through new taxes on in-state oil extraction. In turn, the money will be used to fund a board that will dole out funds to alternative energy products and companies. Regarding the measure’s big tax bite,...

Public works bonds flounder Big spenders, other woes threaten support for infrastructure SACRAMENTO — Public-works bond supporters fear they won't have the cash to sell voters on costly infrastructure improvements because monied oil and tobacco firms fighting propositions are inflating the political television ad market. At the same time, other problems are piling up — uneven support based on regional concerns, awkward politics, the sheer size of the multibillion-dollar bond total, and disclosures that much of the money for transportation would not go directly to easing traffic congestion. "It's going to be difficult to have a voice to be heard...

What happens after you — yes you, voters — approve billions of dollars in spending and then walk away? Plenty. In 1998, voters passed Proposition 10 and increased the cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack to fund children's health programs. This has arguably done a lot of good. But in 2004, auditors found large amounts of the Proposition 10 money unspent, with no consistent rules in place to govern contracts. In rural Kern County, commissioners used $1,400 to put up bronze plaques honoring themselves in tot lots. ... --snip-- Now, California is getting ready to spend $3 billion for...

Environmental groups, lured by the prospect of more than $4 billion for public-transit projects, are backing away from opposing the massive transportation bond on the November ballot. The environmentalists also are daunted by the nearly $7 million in campaign funds amassed by the bond's supporters. Over the weekend, the 75-delegate board of the Sierra Club of California decided against opposing the $19.95 billion bond package, which includes the money for public transit and $14 billion for road construction, plus other projects. Bill Allayaud, the group's legislative director, said Northern California members pushed to fight the bond, while many Southern California...

September 7, 2006 Another Tax and Spend Scheme: Prop 87 Californians should unite to defeat a bad idea that would cost them billions of dollars. By: Matt Schumsky Ronald Reagan once said that the government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Proving the former California Governor and U.S. President correct, a handful of wealthy big-government liberals and their favorite special interest groups are funding a massive campaign that would levy a new $4 billion tax...