Special interests in California just don’t seem to get it: When our economy is struggling and the state has a huge budget deficit, we have to dedicate our limited resources to our state’s highest priorities and responsibilities, like education, public safety and creating jobs in California.
Despite billions of dollars in recent cuts to education and other critical services and a $16 billion budget deficit, one career politician is still pushing a $735 million tax that does nothing to rein in runaway state spending or control waste and inefficiency in government. Prop. 29 may promise more funding for cancer research – a noble goal – but the fact is that California simply can’t afford to start another flawed billion-dollar spending program right now.
Prop. 29 creates a nearly $1 billion annual tax on tobacco consumers to fund a new unaccountable bureaucracy. The money raised under Prop. 29 would be under the control of a new nine-member board filled with political appointees. This political power machine would be allowed to spend $125 million a year on buildings, bureaucracy, salaries and benefits. There would be absolutely no oversight from the Governor, Legislature or even voters, and the commission would write its own report card on its spending and performance.
We’ve seen what happens when state bureaucracies are unaccountable for how they spend our tax dollars. The stem-cell research agency created by Prop. 71 in 2004 was given control over $3 billion that was to be invested in groundbreaking research to help find treatments – even cures – for spinal cord injuries, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
In reality, however, nearly $300 million was spent to help pay for plush facilities. Multiple bureaucrats employed by the commission received six-figure salaries. The board president made nearly a half million dollars in a single year. A former politician worked only four days a week, but raked in $225,000 a year. Meanwhile, experts say California may still be decades away from the cures Prop. 71 proponents promised.
Similarly, previous initiatives designed to support high-speed rail and childcare programs have come under intense scrutiny for conflicts of interest, mismanagement and wasteful spending. Prop. 29 not only includes many of the same structural flaws, but it also locks in those flaws for 15 years.
Still, Prop. 71 did promise that the money it invested would all be spent in California. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Prop. 29. In fact, Prop. 29 allows California’s tax dollars – whether for research, equipment or facilities – to be spent in other states and even other countries, instead of being spent here in California creating jobs.
In the meantime, however, California’s students are facing massive cuts to public education. We’re seeing unprecedented lows in funding for our state’s colleges and universities. Governor Brown has even proposed shortening the school year by three weeks over the next two years.
Despite California’s tough economic situation, however, Prop. 29 fails to do its part to help fund critical existing health, public safety and social service programs. In fact, Prop. 29 shortchanges our students by more than $300 million every year by refusing to give schools their fair share of the new funding.
At a time when we can’t even fund schools or other critical services, it simply doesn’t make sense to create a new state spending bureaucracy we can’t afford.
Prop. 29 is a poorly drafted measure that’s full of loopholes, and it’s a recipe for more wasteful spending. But don’t just take my word for it. Go to www.ReadForYourself.org > and see what this initiative is really about.
Voters should reject Prop. 29 this June.
Victor Gomez, Chairman, San Benito County Chamber of Commerce
