When people hear that I am a member of the League of Women Voters of California, they always smile and say, “I love how the League analyzes ballot initiatives! I love how they give recommendations on ballot initiatives! I feel like I can trust their recommendations.”
This November people are being asked to vote on Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative (Proposition 30) and, as always, they ask what the League recommends. They particularly want to know how Prop. 30 will help (or hurt) schools.
The League recommends a YES vote on Prop. 30 because "it begins to move California toward financial stability and adequate funding for all the services we want from our government" (from LWVC website).
I am voting YES on Prop. 30 because I believe it will help schools now and in the long run. Not only will it help schools, it will help all programs in our state budget because the money it raises will be shared with lots of programs that would be cut otherwise. Programs such as mental health, colleges, child care, public safety and the courts will be helped by Prop. 30. And, traditional public schools will be helped. In fact, if Prop. 30 does not pass, not only will those other services be cut drastically, schools will be cut over $400 per student!
How would schools manage with a budget where they get $400 less per student? We’ve already heard that many schools would cut their school year by up to 20 days. Twenty days! How can our children get even an adequate education if their school year is 20 days shorter? When we should be investing in education for the world ahead, and our graduates are competing with students from Singapore, Finland and other high-performing educational systems, how is it that we should willingly cut 20 days from our school year?
You may remember that many months ago there were five tax initiatives being proposed for this November’s election. One of them was the so-called “Millionaire’s Tax.” This tax was going to start raising taxes on people earning more than $250,000 a year, particularly millionaires. This tax polled real well among us non-millionaires, and it was supported by teachers. Why am I giving you this history lesson? Well, Gov. Brown and the backers of the Millionaire’s Tax decided to join forces and combine their initiatives. Now Gov. Brown’s initiative includes this Millionaire’s Tax and also uses his original idea of having everyone share in temporarily raising money for schools, colleges, mental health, child care, public safety, the courts, etc., by having a quarter-cent rise in the state sales tax. Now a well-rounded group of supporters including teachers, school superintendents, colleges, nurses, public safety workers and many, many more are asking that we vote YES on Prop. 30.
The League of Women Voters of California thinks this shows a sensible shared responsibility and recommends we vote YES on Proposition 30. In fact, LWVC believes so strongly in this measure that we signed the ballot argument. This is the only tax measure the League is recommending on this ballot.
To see the entire “Vote with the League” list of ballot propositions, please visit beachvoter.org.
This was an opinion piece written by Harriet Chase of the League of Women Voters Beach Cities. If you would like to write a letter to the editor or opinion piece about how increased taxes make the state of California even less competitive, you're welcome to email it to me and I will publish it. Additionally, we've also published this piece from Arthur Christopher Schaper against Proposition 30: http://palosverdes.patch.com/blog_posts/reforms-before-revenue-increases-vote-no-on-prop-30 Nicole
Bottom line VOTE NO, until the get these written correctly.
"And what happens if the Brown and Munger propositions go down in flames? "We're talking about going off the cliff, not just in our district, but every district in California," said Vanden Bos, who projects that another $457 per student will be lost in Palos Verdes, and the list of suggested cuts "is frightening." Elementary schools will share principals, music and arts will be on the chopping block, sports funding may be eliminated, some building maintenance will be discontinued and class sizes will increase again........... http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1010-lopez-schoolprops-20121010,0,6255808.column Vote YES on Prop 30
Between Props 30 and 38, prop 38 is the one MORE likely to actually do what we want it to do - to put more money in our schools where it will do the most good. Unfortunately, Prop 30 - if you read the language of the actual initiative provided in your voter information guide - reads clearly as a scam! Here are a few of my reasons for NOT voting for prop 30: 1. It DOES let Sacramento play a "shell game" con where for every dollar that this new tax brings it for "education", they CAN - and I believe WILL take at least one dollar OUT of the original education budget. Read the initiative - not the little blurbs provided by various organizations and you will see that this is clearly true. 2. There is no such thing as a "temporary" sales tax increase - only a stated date at which that tax can - and will - be used for other things. If you vote for this SALES tax increase - it will be with us for EVER and higher sales taxes ARE bad for new and existing California businesses. 3. Flat rate increases in Sales Tax are economically unfair. Why should a family earning $25,000 pay the same percentage increase as a family the makes $100,000? The flat tax increases the percentage of financial DRAIN unfairly on the poorer families. 38 is the better Proposition.
1. The tax is primarily a gradiated INCOME tax increase that cost lower income families less and higher income families more. This is important in that the burdon of education should be shared fairly over the economic landscape. 2. The amount of tax increase from prop 38 is LESS than prop 30, but instead of the money going to Sacramento, YOUR tax dollars are going to go to the schools in YOUR district. YOUR school gets to decide how the money is going to be spent except that: a. Only 1% can be used for "Administration" expenses. b. The money can NOT be used to increase administrator salaries. 3. The amouth a "typical" tax payer will pay is very small when compared to prop 30. Over the course of a YEAR, a lower income home will pay $54 more in taxes over the course of an entire year - or about $4.50 more per month. Even at the higher tax brackets, the actual dollar increase is relatively minor. 4. Our schools are in BIG trouble and a large part of the problem CAN be fixed by "throwing money at it" - if we throw it in the right places! Prop 30 lets Sacramento "free up" money that SHOULD go to education and use it for other things. Prop 38 puts the money in the hands of YOUR local schools and lets the schools use it for what THEY really need. If both prop 30 and 38 pass, the one with the most votes goes into effect. DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT - Read the propositions for yourself and cast and INFORMED vote!