88 - the most unpopular Proposition

[xenophobe]

Prop. 88
EDUCATION FUNDING. REAL PROPERTY PARCEL TAX. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.


NO: 4,853,962 77.0%
YES: 1,454,311 23.0%

Additional $50 per parcel Property Tax viciously defeated as the most voted against proposition this year. That much is good news. I was planning to be upset if this was even close for a numbers of reasons.

[Ford8N]

What you saw was a vote by plebiscite. You will never see that kind of vote for welfare, government employee raises, foreign aid, free medical care for illegal aliens, ect, ect, ECT,>>>>>>>>>>>>>>!!!!!! :mad:

There, I feel better now. :p

[anothergunnut]

Tax me a measly $50? No Way! Tax those miserable SOB smokers $2.60 per pack, well of course, they deserve it.

It's interesting to see how popular hiking somebody else's taxes are. I know the tax did not pass but it was much closer.

[bu-bye]

I beleive the problem with people is they only focus on what is good for them right that very second and not what is good for the city, state, or country. I can't stand it when they raise the min wage. You must have no understanding of how the economy or basic math works to vote for that. If a business has to pay you more then they raise their prices for everything which means all that extra money you just made will now go to pay for higher priced iteams which means......YOU GAINED NOTHING YOU FOOL! Everyone who makes just over min wage now has to pay higher prices with no extra money or even a pay cut to pay for those only making min wage. If a business does not raise their prices it means you might be fired and not have a job at all. Try thinking ahead before you vote to get another 5 bucks a day:rolleyes:

there is a hat or t-shirt I want that reads...."Some people just arn't worth minimum wage"
:D

[bbq_ribs]

It was a $50 per year per parcel tax that would have gone directly to schools. For the children. I'm amazed that something "for the children" *didn't* pass in California.

Next thing we know, Jerry Brown will be buying an OLL for himself and signing paperwork to make CA a shall-issue state!

[sierratangofoxtrotunion]

In my house, we get both Republican and Democrat party-line mail-outs because my father-in-law is registered Democrat. "Because (he) work(s) for a living." Well, he used to anyway. But I got a chance to go over both parties' stances on the propositions. What boggled my mind was both parties said no on this one. Raise taxes? For the children? Sounds to me like the Demos would be all over this. There must be some othe reason hidden deep inside that they didn't mention that's the real reason they hated it.

[adamsreeftank]

Maybe I'm the lone voice in the wilderness, but I am really pissed this didn't pass. I have two young children in school, and they are really hurting for money. They need to raise money for even the basics. We have contributed a fair amount because we want our children to have access to the things that will help them learn so they can compete with the rest of the country and the world. China puts out so many more engineers per capita compared to the US that it isn't even funny. And for that matter, CA is one of the lowest funders per child in the entire country. Are you really saying that you wouldn't be willing to pay the cost of two boxes of American Eagle to help the next generation compete with our nations economic competitors?

[jdberger]

Something like 48% of the California budget goes to education. What's that? Like $4 Billion? There is a point when you should stop throwing money at a problem and see if there is a different solution.

[Inoxmark]

Well, I am sure Chinese are not spending an equivalent of US$10,000 per year per student. So maybe it's not how about how much money you throw into the system.

[chickenfried]

The only year available from the census bureau was 2004, CA is listed 23rd in spending per child. So we don't suck, we're just average :p
http://www.census.gov/govs/www/school.html
And for that matter, CA is one of the lowest funders per child in the entire country.

[jdberger]

Oh, I'm sorry. It looks like (according to the most recent budget (http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/FullBudgetSummary.pdf)) that California is gonna spend $55.1 billion on K-12 and comunity colleges.

Of course, once you get into the details, you see that:


$25 Million goes to teachers of English learners
$50 Million to recruit teachers and pricipals to low performing shools
$1.8 Million for mathematics improvement (!!!!!???!!!) *
$112.4 Million for K-12 enrollment growth (though in the same sentence, it says that K-12 enrollment growth is projected to be negative for 2006-07)*
$4.4 Million to schools to administer a new requirement that children entering kindergarten receive an oral health assessment (the school doesn't do the exam, they just process the paperwork)


Hundred million here and a hundred million there and soon enough you are talking about some real money...........

*$112 million of more imaginary kids in school but only $1.8 million to teach little Stevie how to make change at Taco Bell?

[grammaton76]

Dude, one thing you need to realize is that the schools are nothing more than a fundraising operation, and will remain such for as long as the government remains basically the same animal as it is now.

The one thing which the public will almost always vote itself tax increases for, is education. Almost always. But, does that money ever make it to the kids? Seriously doubtful. If the kids start learning, then the school isn't doing its job - making the public willing to vote itself new taxes! That's what people don't get - poor school performance and visible underfunding/understaffing is just the system working to enlarge itself.

[xenophobe]

It was a $50 per year per parcel tax that would have gone directly to schools. For the children. I'm amazed that something "for the children" *didn't* pass in California.

An unfair tax levied against property owners.

Personally I think there shouldn't be any property taxes, and that it should be all billed to a new "Renter's Tax". :p

[chunger]

I voted no. . . This year, I will pay over $500 in additional taxes due to local measures that have passed in my city to fund the schools. Next year, another measure kicks in. I have no kids. . . when I do have kids, I will take the time to ensure they have a solid foundational education even if their school sucks. . . guess that's what my parents did for me.

[Whitesmoke]

My wife is a teacher (2nd and 3rd grade)....and I'll tell you right now, the problem with the schools is not underfunding. They have plenty of money...

first...they waste too much on administration. 2nd...some (and note, I only said some) tenured teachers are a waste of skin that just don't care because they can't be fired anyways. 3rd....Parents are the other problem. If a perent doesn't care or value and encourage their kids education, neither will the kid. They won't try....period. You can't make the kids do anything.....especially when only 30% of the parents bother to show up to a parent/teacher conference.


They don't need more money....they need to quit wasting it.

[Whitesmoke]

oh.....do you know why everyone always votes for every school bond they see? Because they don't understand what a bond is.....

[NeoWeird]

And I think you guys fail torealize that in many foreign countries the kids LIVE at school. Most foreign countires also require their students to learn their native language, English (the international language) and a foreign language. They are also punished if they do poorly in school and are frequently essentially raised into a profession. Look at Jackie Chan; he was essentially given to a school as an adopted child who raised him as an acrobat going on 16 hours days 7 days a week. Schools in America don't underperform because of a lack of money, we underperform because we lower the bar over and over again to make sure everyone passes. A high school diploma used to mean something, now it's a joke and you're expected to have one, as if it were your belly button or something.

And yes Mr politician, please punish the land owners and spend it all to pay for the schooling of all the illegal kids here. If they asked for a $50 tax a year per person to kick illegals out of the country than I would be a bit more open eared, and I guarantee you a lot of our problems would start to disipate if not go away completely.

[dychen]

Quit spending the money teaching illegal's kid's and start spending it on our own. Quit spending a bunch of money on BS policies and rewriting the school books so that homo's are shown as an acceptable "alternative lifestyle". Basically get the liberals out or our school system, but considering how intrenched they are with there tenyear or whatever they call it and they pretty much own our colleges, looks like another losing battle for california.

[jumbopanda]

Quit spending the money teaching illegal's kid's and start spending it on our own. Quit spending a bunch of money on BS policies and rewriting the school books so that homo's are shown as an acceptable "alternative lifestyle". Basically get the liberals out or our school system, but considering how intrenched they are with there tenyear or whatever they call it and they pretty much own our colleges, looks like another losing battle for california.

Agreed. I don't have a problem with gay people, but it seems that now its gotten to the point that libs want to turn kids gay rather than just teaching them to accept those who are. I heard that they wanted to change history textbooks to actually point out which historical figures were gay, even though their sexual preference is completely irrelevant to the role they played in history. :rolleyes:

[Satex]

It's because the CA public education system is nothing but a daytime prison for kids. Schools have long ago done away with teaching anything. All they aspire to do is keep the population under control and prevent violence which is bad for prison PR.

Something like 48% of the California budget goes to education.

As far as the propositions. I didn't like any of them and am happy they were rejected. The reason isn't related to the stated objective of the propositions, but the hidden clauses that all of them had. Just like with the smoke tax. The hidden text had the money dispersed in ways that are unhear of. All of these bills were well written by interest groups and they had pork money set aside based on the money collected. All the propositions went along similar lines. This is wrong. I hope that propositions will be change into clear and direct proposals that don't require to search for the hidden interest groups in each.

[adamsreeftank]

Wow, I guess I am the lone voice of opposition here.

I just wonder, how many of the people who posted have kids in school and how many own their residence?

I remember the year I started highschool, Prop13 had just passed that put the cap on property taxes. The prior year, my school had a whole bunch of technical classes like auto shop and machine shop. All of those were closed down do to a lack of money.

Now, maybe you don't want to be a machinist or have your kids be machinists, but there is a natural progression. Step 1: Eliminate the training for skilled trades. Step 2: argue that there aren't enough skilled workers and they are too expensive so you can justify moving your opperations overseas. Step 3: What's left? A bunch of lawyers and accountants at the top and a bunch of burger flippers at the bottom with less and less in the middle. (no offense to either group intended)

I personally worry less about illegal immigrants and more about how we are going to compete with the developing nations when our debt rating starts to go down and we can't keep running the country on a credit card. I don't know. Maybe some of your retirement plans are to be Raptured.:D

[joe4702]

Voters rejected the $50 parcel tax (as they should), but approved $80 billion in new spending (bonds + interest). Where do they think this money will come from?