Received this letter from former Norwalk (CA) Mayor and current Cerritos College Trustee Bob Arthur.  I have asked him if I could post it to RedCounty and he agreed to it. Enjoy.

Letter from Bob Arthur,

Last Tuesday we received our sample ballots in the mail for the May 19^th Special Statewide Election and I hope you’re as upset as I am about the lack of responsibility of our elected officials in Sacramento.     On the ballot we are being asked to approve six measures that our legislator’s are contending will solve the $32 Billion State Budget gap.  As I understand it these propositions were approved by them last February and low and behold, just one month later, in March, they stated that the gap would still be $8 Billion even with the public’s passage of the six measures.   Our elected leaders have proposed increasing sales tax, state income tax, vehicle license fees with  minimum cuts in state spending and/or regulations and borrowing monies from voter approved funds that were earmarked for exclusive proposes.    According to the news articles that I’ve read and information provided to me via the State Republican Party our leaders have hired over 2,000 new employees, failed to re-negotiate state employee contracts while allowing some state agencies to continue to waste money on things like redecorating offices and travel junkets.  For example, with record numbers of people unemployed in our state the Sacramento brain trust approved a contact for out-sourcing call-ins to EDD.  Now when a person calls in for assistance in filing for unemployment or seeking answers to questions they are connected to a recording that says all lines/operators are busy and then directs the individual to the EDD website.  The sad thing here is that the call-in contactor is not providing people to answer the phones at all … every call is forwarded to the electronic message.  The cost to tax payers is a reported $3,500,000.00 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/22/BULN16IQMG.DTL).

Next month our legislator’s are asking us to go to the polls to pass these six propositions that they say are needed to solve our budget problems.  Proposition 1A is deceptively marketed as an effective spending cap but in fact is one which can be discarded during times of “emergency”; an “emergency” that is defined by the Legislature and Governor. Additionally, the ballot title and summary fail to sufficiently inform voters that passage of 1A would constitute a two-year extension of the new $16 billion tax burden on California's taxpayers to the average annual cost, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, of $1,100.00 in higher taxes per California family.

Propositions 1B and 1C are a poorly disguised effort to steal from education to pay for today's budget deficit, Proposition 1D takes $1.3 billion in voter approved funds for California's children and spend it on general fund programs and Proposition 1E similarly wrests millions from mental health programs.  Lastly, Proposition 1F  is a cynical ploy to fool voters into believing its approval would hold legislators responsible for the budget dilemma by withholding pay and coerces reluctant legislators to approve budgets. 

I would be the first to say that I don’t have the answers to all of the budget problems, however, I believe with many others that the first thing we should demand of our elected officials is for them to listen to the needs of their constituent’s.  I believe that the fixed costs induced by property taxes the state receives from taxpayers, needs to be reduced.  In exchange for this reduction, I concur with the idea of a proposed consumption based taxation which can be chosen by those suffering through this economy.  I believe this change could actually spur the growth in the California economy and stop some of the hemorrhaging from heavily taxed businesses. I believe that this over-taxation is a direct cause of the state’s unemployed record levels. Second, the Legislature has to cease holding our public safety, health care, and children’s education hostage, while they refuse to cut wasteful spending.  Lastly, they need to stop giving special interest groups money they did not earn in order to promote a change of our culture.

In order for you to be well prepared go to the polls on May 19^th here are a couple of links for more information on these six measures that might help in your decision.   Personally I prefer to pay more attention to the actual texts of the propositions and the analysis, rather than the gamed arguments for and against.

http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/ & http://www.hjta.org/

Thanks for letting me vent …

Bob