Editorial: Will 2012 be the year of the tax increase ballot measure?

Will 2012 be the year of the tax increase ballot measure?

Editorial By Stephen Frank for the California Political News and Views, 12/1/11

In the past seven years California racked up $165 billion worth of deficits under the amateur Arnold. In the first four months of Guv Brown’s first budget, he racked up $20.3 billion in deficits, while revenues were down “only” $800 million.

Our pension systems are collapsing, cities and counties are going broke keeping up with increased pension contributions. Los Angeles and San Francisco are both paying about 23% of their General Fund revenues for pensions. The University of California system is broke and has to raise tuition again. The unfunded pension liabilities of the UC system are $21 billion. Yet they have agreed to raise the pay of some administrators by as much as 21%.

Dropouts from government schools are around 20% statewide, in Los Angeles nearly 60%. Illegal aliens are crowding our classrooms, hospitals and jails. We are paying for classrooms and jail cells for illegal aliens and our hospitals turn away taxpayers to care for foreigners the Feds refuse to deport, per the law.

Unemployment or “leakage” as the Left prefers to call it is over 20%, when you count everyone, unemployed, underemployed, given up hope and run out of benefits and those working part time who want full time work.

Last year 129,000 people left the State, up from 89,000 the year before.

Cost of water and electricity will be going up at least an average of 8% next year, while the value of homes continue to decline in most of the State.

Earlier this year Gov. Brown tried to get the legislature to transfer (tax) the families and businesses $70 billion to government. He and Arnold already took billions from Trust Funds to cover their out of control spending and deficits. Then the roof falls in when even the Democrats had trouble voting for this and the Republicans unified against harming families even more.

With this background a bunch of billionaires decided to pay up to $20 million to separate you from $10 billion. The billionaires have as their advisors two failed, disgraced former Governors—Gray Davis and the amateur Arnold. Plus, they have the ethically challenged Willie Brown.

Not only do they want to take your money on the theory government needs it more than you do, but they want to set up a Commission, so they would not have to, in the future get signatures to get a tax increase on the ballot. They want the Commission, unelected, to supplant the Legislature—elected. Isn’t that what totalitarian nations do? This is from the “Think Long Committee”—they think with their money and arrogance, not with reality, common sense and compassion for families harmed by their liberal policies of the past.

Then you have Molly Munger, a registered Republican, who loves taxes. Her brother Charles was the biggest donor to Arnolds’ political and policy ballot measures. He gave between $23-27 million, plus millions from his wife. Look how well those wentfor the families of California.

Molly, wants you to pay $10 billion more—for education and to cover her brothers friend Arnolds deficit and debt. She will fund the campaign to separate you from your money…as a billionaire money means little to her, Molly isn’t forced to pay Christmas presents on a limited budget.

Then you have a hedge fund manager who is a piker –his ballot measure is only $1.1 billion. The first $550 million of new taxes is to go to alternative energy resources. Guess what, that is his field of financial leadership. He wants government money to bail him out!

Finally someone wants another billion dollars for cancer research of some sort. We already know of the abuse of the $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research.

As the California Depression deepens watch the billionaires work hard to close businesses and foreclose on homes due to tax and regulatory policies they support