.California Voters Reject Slate of Budget Propositions
LOS ANGELES - California's voters on Tuesday rejected a complex slate of ballot propositions designed to keep the state from sliding further toward fiscal calamity.
The only measure they approved in a statewide special election was Proposition 1F, which will prohibit raises to lawmakers and other state elected officials during deficit years.
Voters rejected at least four of the five other measures, including Proposition 1A, the centerpiece of efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state leaders to fix California's ongoing fiscal problems. It would have created a state spending cap while prolonging temporary tax increases and also strengthened the state's rainy day fund.
"Tonight we have heard from the voters and I respect the will of the people who are frustrated with the dysfunction in our budget system," Schwarzenegger said in a statement late Tuesday.
"Now we must move forward from this point to begin to address our fiscal crisis with constructive solutions."
The failure of the measures means California's budget deficit will grow by nearly $6 billion above the current $15.4 billion deficit, forcing Schwarzenegger to make further cuts to state programs already facing major rollbacks.
"Obviously, it's disappointing," said Democratic Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee. "But I think the voters are sending a message that they believe the budget is the job of the governor and Legislature. We probably need to go back and do our job."
Other measures voters rejected would have transferred $460 million over the next two years from mental health programs to help close the state deficit; redirected $1.7 billion from children's programs; and allowed $5 billion in borrowing from lottery revenue.
Proposition 1B, which would have restored more than $9 billion to schools, was trailing in early returns Tuesday but was effectively moot. Proposition 1A's defeat means that the measure cannot be approved even if voters approve it.
The special election ballot also included races for a congressional seat and a state Senate seat, both in Southern California. East of downtown Los Angeles, voters were deciding who would fill the seat vacated by U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, with two Democrats locked in a tight race.
The governor missed Election Day in California but cast a mail-in ballot before leaving for the nation's capital, where he joined a White House announcement on new vehicle fuel-efficiency standards.
The Republican governor spent part of the day talking to members of California's congressional delegation, bracing them for the prospect of additional spending cuts if the propositions failed.
Laying off thousands of state employees, reducing the school year by seven days and cutting health care services for tens of thousands of low-income children are among the options.
California will need a waiver from the federal government allowing it to make some of those cuts without jeopardizing money from the stimulus package.
Despite the doomsday predictions, California voters largely tuned out, illustrated by the trickle at polling places throughout the state. Local election officials projected that about a third of the state's 17.1 million registered voters would cast ballots, roughly half of whom were expected to do so through mail-in ballots.
Sentiment at polling stations throughout the state was a mix of anger toward politicians and resignation that the state would continue to face financial turmoil no matter the outcome of Tuesday's vote.
Schwarzenegger said last week that the state's deficit would be $15.4 billion in the coming fiscal year even if voters approved the propositions. It would grow by nearly $6 billion if they did not.
Yvonne Frazier decided to vote for every proposition except one that would transfer money from a fund dedicated to helping the mentally ill. The grant writer from San Francisco saw it as the only way to balance the state's budget.
"I wasn't real happy about it, but what are going to do?" she said. "It's a vote out of desperation."
FoxNews
Anyone think Washington might get a clue when it comes to Cap and Tax and other legislations now on the block. You would think people, even in the ratified air of the capital would be getting this message.
The only measure they approved in a statewide special election was Proposition 1F, which will prohibit raises to lawmakers and other state elected officials during deficit years.
Voters rejected at least four of the five other measures, including Proposition 1A, the centerpiece of efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state leaders to fix California's ongoing fiscal problems. It would have created a state spending cap while prolonging temporary tax increases and also strengthened the state's rainy day fund.
"Tonight we have heard from the voters and I respect the will of the people who are frustrated with the dysfunction in our budget system," Schwarzenegger said in a statement late Tuesday.
"Now we must move forward from this point to begin to address our fiscal crisis with constructive solutions."
The failure of the measures means California's budget deficit will grow by nearly $6 billion above the current $15.4 billion deficit, forcing Schwarzenegger to make further cuts to state programs already facing major rollbacks.
"Obviously, it's disappointing," said Democratic Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee. "But I think the voters are sending a message that they believe the budget is the job of the governor and Legislature. We probably need to go back and do our job."
Other measures voters rejected would have transferred $460 million over the next two years from mental health programs to help close the state deficit; redirected $1.7 billion from children's programs; and allowed $5 billion in borrowing from lottery revenue.
Proposition 1B, which would have restored more than $9 billion to schools, was trailing in early returns Tuesday but was effectively moot. Proposition 1A's defeat means that the measure cannot be approved even if voters approve it.
The special election ballot also included races for a congressional seat and a state Senate seat, both in Southern California. East of downtown Los Angeles, voters were deciding who would fill the seat vacated by U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, with two Democrats locked in a tight race.
The governor missed Election Day in California but cast a mail-in ballot before leaving for the nation's capital, where he joined a White House announcement on new vehicle fuel-efficiency standards.
The Republican governor spent part of the day talking to members of California's congressional delegation, bracing them for the prospect of additional spending cuts if the propositions failed.
Laying off thousands of state employees, reducing the school year by seven days and cutting health care services for tens of thousands of low-income children are among the options.
California will need a waiver from the federal government allowing it to make some of those cuts without jeopardizing money from the stimulus package.
Despite the doomsday predictions, California voters largely tuned out, illustrated by the trickle at polling places throughout the state. Local election officials projected that about a third of the state's 17.1 million registered voters would cast ballots, roughly half of whom were expected to do so through mail-in ballots.
Sentiment at polling stations throughout the state was a mix of anger toward politicians and resignation that the state would continue to face financial turmoil no matter the outcome of Tuesday's vote.
Schwarzenegger said last week that the state's deficit would be $15.4 billion in the coming fiscal year even if voters approved the propositions. It would grow by nearly $6 billion if they did not.
Yvonne Frazier decided to vote for every proposition except one that would transfer money from a fund dedicated to helping the mentally ill. The grant writer from San Francisco saw it as the only way to balance the state's budget.
"I wasn't real happy about it, but what are going to do?" she said. "It's a vote out of desperation."
FoxNews
Anyone think Washington might get a clue when it comes to Cap and Tax and other legislations now on the block. You would think people, even in the ratified air of the capital would be getting this message.
posted by madtom at 8:30 PM
7 Comments:
I spent the last 5 days traveling around the Houston, Austin, San Antonio, DFW areas and saw more FLA and CA license plates on cars full of possessions than I could count. Forget Invasion from the south, the east and west are descending upon us. Grapes of Wrath in reverse.
Damn, all those unemployment checks slipping out of our hands. We need a moving tax to keep people put.
I agree. You need armed checkpoints at the border to keep you people in place. Hell of it is, I still can't get good construction labor. You are sending the wrong people or something.
Well that would seem to fit the pattern, it's not our people running up to you, I think they are your people coming back home. And I think all the day labor went back south. What you got now is the trailer park trash, that lost their new homes down here. Good luck getting any of them to do a days work.
Ha! What we are getting are the people sick of obtrusive government and high taxes. And I wasn't talking about day labor--those from down south are still here--- I'm talking about full time wanna learn a trade starting at 1.5 times minimum wage. There are very few young americans willing to sweat outside for 10 hours a day anymore. I have had more than one teenager or 20 something tell me that was 'Mexican work' while they toiled at best buy or mcdonald's for part time minimum wage.
Florida is a low tax state. No income tax, and all that. And we are after all an immigrant state, people immigrate here from all over the US. Locals from here had been immigrating out for years. People get sick of the urban life and move up and out of Florida. I know scores of people that moved out during the boom times. Now in the bust the first to leave are the newcomers, people with less of an extended family to help out. People moving back here are more likely people looking to be close to their own extended families.
California I know is a different story.
Yeah, I know. Fla is a freakin paradise. I really haven't seen that many FL plates and haven't met FLidians recently. But a lot of my work is repairing and maintaining roofs on commercial lease spaces in entry level complexes, and I've met dozens of tenants who got the hell out of CA--- not because they had no money or a job, but because they were sick of all the regulations and taxing in CA and decided to start up a new business in TX. I know two who bought their house in LA for 70 grand in CA 11 years ago, sold it for 1.1 million 3 years ago, bought a new house 5 times the size of the one they left, and had 3/4 million left over to start up a business. Lucky or smart, I dunno. The house they sold in CA is in foreclosure now with a price tag of less than a half mil.
But TX is the home of 4 of the nation's ten largest cities and will be the most populous in ten years at this rate. Until all these imports manage to fuck it up for the rest of us.
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