Beyond the Commercials

Election day is near and the ads are constant on TV, radio, and the Internet. All the nasty, misleading misinformation is flowing from both sides like an unstoppable volcano. Come next Tuesday it will all thankfully stop and we can get on with our lives. Until then, IGNORE every commercial you see or hear. They mean nothing. They have nothing new to tell you.



I, on the other hand, have lots of opinions and you are welcome to read on and see what I have to say about the candidates and propositions. I will tell you up front that I am coming to this election from an educational viewpoint. All my choices are based on whether it will help fully fund and support public education, give teachers a voice at the 'reform' table, and ultimately, help me keep my job.



Meg Whitman will not help public education. She will make deep cuts to the public employee sector and put in place huge corporate tax breaks and that takes money away from education. I have searched high and low to find out what she wants to 'fix' in public education but there are no specifics anywhere and the overall mantra seems to be that we need to find ways to fire teachers easily (sounds like a corporate CEO to me) and any bad school will be changed to a charter and somehow that will miraculously turn them around.



Jerry Brown has a record of supporting education. He will honor Proposition 98 (that we overwhelmingly passed and that Arnold is suspending) that guarantee's minimum funding. He will work together with District offices, administrators, teachers and parents to develop a fair form of evaluation and is a true believer in allowing local districts to make local decisions.
Our state is in bad shape. The Democrats will still control Sacramento after Tuesday. Meg will have no better chance at getting anything done than Arnie did. She will be blocked at every turn and she will be powerless to use her business skills because she will be unable to fire workers or management that doesn't agree with her vision. Our state is not a company. It is a wild and crazy mix of diverse hopes and dreams. Jerry knows the ins and outs of Sacramento. He is beyond political sides and has become a pragmatist that will do what needs to be done to get our state moving forward again. Jerry Brown for Governor.



I don't have much to say about the Senate race. Fiorina shipped thousand of jobs overseas, made herself rich, and left HP in worse shape than when she took over. Boxer is a champion for education and the working people of California. Barbara Boxer for Senate.



Prop 19 - Pot. Make large amounts of tax money on the legalization and distribution of pot? The feds will never allow the raising, packaging and selling of pot so the reason to say yes is to make a statement and start a movement in the United States to legalize a drug that is arguably no better or worse for society than alcohol is. From a purely financial view, I say: Yes on 19.



Prop 20 -redistricting, part 1. This proposition was created and paid for by the son of a Wall Street billionaire, a man named Charles Munger, Jr. When a proposition is paid for by one person, I am immediately suspicious. It would direct the citizen commission to draw congressional boundaries as well as state legislative districts. This gives the commission much more power and would cost us millions more than we agreed to in Prop 11 that created the commission. More disconcerting though is the implied racist language in the proposition that calls for districts to be 'segregated by income'; 'similar living standards'; similar work opportunities'. This is the same language that created the notorious Jim Crow laws in the south and continued the separation of peoples by race and class. For this reason alone I adamantly say: NO on 20.



Prop 21 - $ for parks. Charge you a tax on new vehicles bought to help pay for the deep cuts to the state park system. I need nature to replenish my patience well. I say: Yes on 21



Prop 22 - $ is locked to specific spending. This sounds good but our budget has been played with so much that most everyone gets their funding from the general fund nowadays. Until there is a separate, untouchable source of income for education, we are dependent on access to the general fund. I say: NO on 22



Prop 23 - suspends AB32 This is one of the biggest cons pretending to be a proposition or the people. Two huge oil companies do not want to pay to clean up their refineries and so they have put Prop 23 on the ballot and tried to make it sound like they care about working people. This is a handout to big oil and would stop dead in its tracks the one business model that can help move Ca. forward - green energy jobs. I say: NO on 23



Prop 24 - stop corporate tax breaks. This is a big one for education. If these tax breaks are allowed to happen, education could lose another billion dollars in possible funding. We have lost close to $25 billion in the last three years and cannot afford any more loses. An article in the LA Times today showed that companies in Ca. are not taxed at a higher rate (4.3%)than most other states. In fact, we tax lower than Texas (4.8%), who Meg and others always mention as having a better environment for business. If we pass Prop 24 then these breaks will not go into effect. This one I shout: YES on 24



Prop 25 - on-time budget This is a no brainer. Pass the budget on time or you don't get paid for every day you are late. Retain a 2/3 requirement for any bill that involves taxes. This proposition combined with Prop 24 and Brown as governor might actually keep the hounds at bay next year, keep class sizes where they are (still too big) and keep anymore teachers from being laid off. I say: YES on 25



Prop 26 - vote on fees This is the second biggest con on the ballot. This is funded by Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Bp and other energy companies because fees are raised to help clean up the pollution these companies create. Don't be fooled by the commercials. This is another handout for big oil. I say: NO on 26



Prop 27 - redistricting part 2 - this would repeal Prop 11 and take away the Citizens Commission that will draw the state legislative districts and give the power back to Sacramento where it has always been. Toss-up. From a a financial viewpoint, it would save millions in the cost for this new commission and as we know, once a commission has been created, it hungers for more money. I say: YES on 27



These are my viewpoints. Take them as you will or don't take them at all. All I ask is one important thing: VOTE !

Shame

If anyone needed a reason to vote for Prop 25, the abysmal performance, incredible ineptitude, shameful last minute flurry of back room dealings and downright gutless inaction on raising any kind of revenue by our elected officials in Sacramento should be enough of a reason to convince even the most die-hard conservative.
The Legislature took 100 days to pass a budget that pushes billions of dollars worth of problems to the next governor, based their projected shortfall and incoming federal money on a fantasy, and slashed to the bone every social aid program in the state. They could have done this last July.
They suspended a Proposition that was passed by a solid majority of Californians that guarantees funding to schools and will NOT pay out close to $3 Billion dollars to schools already at the breaking point with some of the biggest class sizes in the nation. In three years they have cut almost $25 Billion from education. There is much talk of school reform but without basic funding and public support, reform is a mute issue. Don't blame the teachers when you pack kids into the rooms like sardines, cut 5 days out of the academic year, fire custodial staff and schools become filthy. Give us an even playing field and the money the people of California said we should have before you pass judgement on our abilities.
Prop 25 says that the Legislature must pass a budget in the appointed time or they will NOT get paid for every day it is late. It allows us to pass the general (more on this in a minute) budget with a majority of votes, thereby ending this tyranny of the minority we have experienced for the last 6 years where a handful of politicians can stop any effort by the majority to try something, anything, to fix the problems. It does NOT stop having to have a 2/3 majority for raising taxes. A budget is made up of a bunch of smaller bills and any bill that involves taxes would have to be passed by a 2/3 majority before it became part of the general budget bill.
We witnessed politicians taking vacations, flying to China, and generally doing nothing for 100 days while our state sunk deeper and deeper into despair and uncertainty. It is time to hold their feet to the fire. Pass a budget or pay the price. Yes on 25.