Proposition 1A on the May 19th special election ballot is touted as a “spending cap” but is actually a massive fraud. It adds $20 billion more in taxes on income, sales and vehicles for two additional years on top of the $12.5 billion tax increase placed upon Californians two months ago. It will extend the tax increase that burdens the typical family with more than $1,100 annually and reduce the tax credit for dependents, costing families $210 per child. This so-called “budget reform” says that when taxes are raised the spending cap can be moved upward—what?
The incompetent state legislature spends about $25 billion more per year than the tax revenue they receive. Over the last ten years California taxpayers have paid a whopping 71% increase in tax revenue to the state government - yet it is not enough. The state has spent 80% more on non education expenditures. In fact, over the last ten years, welfare costs have increased 107% and corrections costs have increased 125%.
If governmental waste were eliminated, then another tax increase would not be needed. For example:
Welfare - $1.8 to $3 billion per year is lost due to fraud in the Food Stamps, Medi-Cal and Cal WORKS programs. Remove illegal immigrants and felons from Cal WORKS. More than 42 percent of California’s taxpayer-funded, Medi-Cal births are to illegal immigrant mothers. Every month, $37 million in welfare and food stamps goes to illegal immigrants in Los Angeles alone.
Prisons - $5 billion per year could be saved if California ran its prisons like other states. $49,000 is the average cost per prison inmate in California, twice the cost to run prisons in other states. A private prison in Oklahoma costs $17,392 per year per inmate. In 2002, Democrat Gov. Gray Davis gave the prison guards’ union (CCPOA) a huge 33.76% pay hike and shut down five private prisons that threatened the union’s monopoly. Annual health care costs for a prisoner have increased from $2,714 in 1995 to $13,778 presently for each of the state’s 171,000 inmates. Another, $1 billion a year could be saved if illegal immigrant prisoners were not in our prisons.
Workers’ Compensation - $2.5 billion a year could be saved if California’s laws were the same as Arizona’s laws. Stop the practice of “temporary disability” that provides two years of benefits without requiring a medical professional to validate the claim.
Prevailing Wage - $1 billion could be saved by conforming California’s prevailing wage to the federal Davis-Bacon Act on state construction projects. Currently, inflated prevailing wage adds 30% to costs.
Surplus Property - $2 billion could be earned by selling San Quentin, a facility that sits on prime land. Also, additional billions could be realized by selling, at fair market value, millions of acres of unused land, golf courses, and misplaced fairgrounds.
Further, if our leaders would follow the recommendations contained in the 2004 “California Performance Review” we could save $32 billion over five years.
The State Constitution already requires a balanced budget, but our state legislators obviously haven’t read it. They pretend that Prop 1A will give them the self discipline to restrict their uncontrolled spending of our money.
Proposition 1A and ALL of the propositions in the upcoming special election deserve a NO vote.
Ken Mettler is the president of the Republican Assembly of Kern County. kmettler@bak.rr.com