Arguments for "Yes" on Propositions 1A-1F
by Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
Please read the following explanation of the Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem's recommendations. Then cast your vote and decide the Courage Campaign's May 19 special election endorsements at:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/EndorsementVote
Note: This letter was originally written for delegates of the California Democratic Party, but is included here to give Courage Campaign members a view from the Democratic leadership and their reasons for supporting the six initiatives.
At this month’s California Democratic Party Convention in Sacramento, you will be asked to take a position on Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F that will appear on a special statewide election May 19. We strongly urge you to support this package to provide California the short-term revenues to get through these difficult economic times, as well as the long-term reforms to stabilize our budget process and protect funding for vital services. After months of difficult negotiations, we made some of the toughest decisions elected officials could ever make. We closed a $42 billion budget shortfall that threatened to send California into fiscal collapse — halting thousands of jobs, devastating critical education, health, children’s and senior services, and plunging our economy into deeper meltdown.
The tough choices we made will begin the long process of getting California back on track and providing long-term stability to the programs and services we all value.
Make no mistake: the final budget agreement contains important victories that hold true to our shared Democratic principles. In particular, we negotiated four years of desperately needed revenue increases, worth $12.5 billion this year alone. We cannot overstate the significance of this achievement. By doing so, we were able to protect education, health care and safety net services from even deeper cuts.
We were also able to stave off Republican demands to roll back hard-fought environmental and worker protections. And, through Proposition 1B, we will ensure that schools are repaid over time for the painful cuts they have endured because of this budget crisis.
But the package and revenues we negotiated will all be for naught if we don’t pass Propositions 1A-1F in May.
Unless Prop. 1A is approved, California will lose $16 billion in revenues from the sales, vehicle license and income taxes beginning in Fiscal Years 2011-2013. Prop. 1A also provides the mechanism to restore $9.3 billion in funds to schools. And without Propositions 1C, 1D, and 1E, we will lose another $7 billion in funding.
Losing $23 billion in revenues, on top of the $8 billion deficit projected by the Legislative Analyst, will result in renewed demands for catastrophically deep cuts to schools, hospitals, essential children’s services and senior programs for the foreseeable future.
There seems to be a great deal of misinformation about Proposition 1A, the spending reform measure. This is NOT a spending cap, but rather a mechanism to force savings in good years to protect funding for services when our economy sours. If California had a rainy-day fund like most other states, $9 billion in cuts could have been avoided this year. In the long-run, Proposition 1A will stabilize state spending for critical services.
Passing Propositions 1A-1F is the first step in restoring our state’s fiscal health and voter confidence in state government. This is essential for us to move forward with our shared priorities such as expanding healthcare to all Californians, further reforming the budget process to eliminate the destructive 2/3 requirement for budgets and taxes, protecting against climate change, and ensuring necessary education, health and social services for the people of California.
We hope you will join us in supporting Propositions 1A-1F.
Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
For more information from the official campaigns, please visit the following links:
Budget Reform Now - Yes on All Propositions (1A-1F)
Note: there is no specific website for Yes on 1D and 1E. See the Budget Reform Now site for more information on those propositions.
To cast your vote and decide the Courage Campaign's May 19 special election endorsements, please go to:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/EndorsementVote