Staring down the November 8th special election in California, I am incredibly saddened by the display of dishonest partisan television ads and their effectiveness. Suddenly, all of the reform proposals, 74, 75, 76, 77 are dropping in the polls.
Most of the ads against props 74-77 are paid for by:
Public worker unions.
California's democrat 3rd party fundraising campaigns.
Most of the content of these ads are simple scare tactics with little substance or facts.
Proposition 74 - Putting CA's children first:
I actually downloaded and read the California budget report prior to the recall election during which Schwarzenegger was elected. Most people don't know, but California has a broken budget system where the legislature must spend approx 50 percent of the budget on schools, weather it is spent effectively or not. Recent studies show that class size reductions (to the current extend in California) have no positive effect on student performance. In high school, I had several teachers who regularly drank alcohol during school hours and left class several times a week to take a drink. Don't get me wrong - I had many excellent teachers - some soo good I wish they could have been given super-merit bonuses to postpone retirement. I recall one inspiring teacher of Philosophy - a Mr. Lavezzo who engaged his students soo well that their background and ideology didn't matter to learn.
Proposition 74 is about rolling back the clock on automatic lifetime tenure after only two years as a teacher. Five years of on the job training, with pay and benefits, isn't exactly a torturous period of non-tenured employment. I'm working in the private sector now and guess what - I've never had and likely never will have tenure! Thus, I am forced to consider that my job likely depends on my performance.
Proposition 75 - Paycheck Protection is aptly named.
The anti-75 scare ads are filled with dishonest rhetoric. Prop 75 does one and only one thing: It requires public worker unions of California to get written permission from members to use their union dues for political purposes. Polls show that the majority of workers in these unions support this proposition, but are afraid of retribution if they speak-out. A local teacher wrote the Palo Alto Weekly that their local union bosses left threatening notes in her classroom and mailbox after she publicly supported Prop 75.
What kind of a union threatens a worker simply for expressing a political view?
The answer is clear - the only people who are really opposed to Prop 75 are the union bosses who have spent over one hundred million dollars on ad campaigns against Prop 75. Who should we trust? Polls taken in the unions themselves, or the $100,000,000 ad blitz by the union bosses, without consent of the union populus?
Proposition 76 - Balanced Budget
This is a sneaky proposition, and one that I hope passes as well. It allows, but does not require (if I understand correctly) the governor to reduce line-item spending, if the CA legislators pass a budget that is well over our projected revenue. Using a simple formula based on revenue growth in the previous three years, Prop 76 allows the budget to grow. If the legislators decide to spend without corresponding revenue, the governor (even if not Arnold) has the option to reduce spending to the appropriate level.
Most of the ads against this one are funded by democratic 3rd party fundraising groups, but there is really only one false pretense driving the content of the ads. Virtually every ad against Prop 76 states that the budget for schools will be reduced. This is utter nonsense. In the previous decade, and even in the previous 4 years, the entire state budget including schools has increased significantly. All Prop 76 will do is smooth out the increases so that a sudden inrease in revenus such as the dot-com or biotech booms will not allow the legislators to spend all of the money without using some of it to pay of debts or invest in vital long-term infrastructure such as roads.
The only people who fear Prop 76 are the lifetime incumbant legislators, particularly the democrats, who will no longer have an unliminted budget for their pet pork projects.
Prop 77 - Voter Empowerment Act:
Anyone who lives in California and votes will know that they get approximately zero invites to ever meet their state assembly person or congressional representative. In a state of 40 million people I can understand that they are busy, but why are they never around winning our vote other than during campaign season? I live only a 2 hour drive from Sacramento yet never once in my life (all in CA) has there been a town hall meeting where I had access to my local representitive.
Here's why: California's districts are drawn up artifically by the politicians in Sacramento (on both parties) such that incumbents don't have to do anything to get re-elected.
Of 153 congressional and state election races in November of last year (2004), not a single district changed political party! [sitation from:www.joinarnold.com What kind of democracy is that? These districts are soo out of whack it is unbelievable.
If you think this is a Right vs Left issue, consider this: every major newspaper in the state has endorsed Prop 77. Even the ultra liberal San Francisco Chronicle has endorsed Prop 77! (view at: www.joinarnold.com).
Well, there you have it - every TV argument against Props 74-77 are a scare tactic. We elected Arnold for a reason, and it wasn't to "pump up" the state. It was to reform California and keep our great state strong and healthy. We must act now to pass Propositions 74, 75, 76, and 77.
Please join the millions of Californians who have actually read about the propositions and vote with your head, not because "Judge Whappner" was hired to do an high priced infomercial against Prop 77.
No comments:
Post a Comment