Posted by
Katy Grimes on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 12:23:16 PM
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore wrote an excellent analysis of Prop 1A and California's taxing structure and inevitable tax revolt, for Human Events:
In 1978, Californians were saddled with the third-highest tax burden in America. In a massive grassroots uprising, California voters passed Proposition 13, placing limits on property taxes and the ability of the legislature to raise taxes. In large measure, Prop. 13 catapulted former Gov. Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980.
On May 19, California voters rejected five ballot measures aimed at allowing California to continue its overspending ways. These measures were designed to bring in an additional $6 billion in short-term revenue and $16 billion in additional taxes to close a massive budget deficit. Voters nixed Prop. 1A, the most important proposition, by almost a two-to-one margin. Prop. 1A was a two-headed monster that sought to extend the largest state tax increase in U.S. history for two years while enacting a weak and loophole-ridden budget-leveling tool that proponents touted as a “spending limit,” despite its being nothing of the sort. Gov. Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders, the “Big Five,” put Prop. 1A together with only Sacramento interests in mind, thinking the public sector unions that might be afraid of even a modest budget restraint tool would be bought off by the prospects of higher taxes. It mostly worked, with some unions enthusiastically supporting Prop. 1A and only a few opposed. But the Big Five forgot the most important special interest: the voters.