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Voters Reject 5 of 6 Ballot Measures, Sending Clear Message to Legislators
By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | 
2 p.m. | Published on 05.19.2009
After a slow day at the polls, Tuesday’s special election results confirmed that Californians are not willing to give Sacramento the cuts or new taxes it sought to close the budget gap. Five out of six items on the ballot failed — statewide and in Santa Barbara County — with the exception of a measure that would prevent elected legislators and officers, including the governor, from receiving pay raises while California is running a deficit.
Voters faced confusing language on the ballot and saw little advertising on the initiatives, sealing their fate. The first item on the ballot, Proposition 1A, was the biggest item legislators were hoping to pass. It would have increased the state’s Rainy Day Fund, which would have come from increases in sales and use taxes, vehicle license fees and personal income tax. The item failed by 65.9 percent statewide and 64.9 percent in the county.
Proposition 1B, which would have mandated $9.3 billion in payments to schools and community colleges by forgoing short-term increases, failed by 63.8 percent in the county and 62.6 percent in the state.
The measure that would have allowed the Legislature to borrow against future lottery taxes, Proposition 1C, also was shot down, losing by 68.5 percent in the county and 64.6 percent in the state. Cuts proposed to children’s “First Five” programs and mental health programs, Propositions 1D and 1E, were rejected, with 1D losing 71.5 percent of the votes in the county and 65.8 percent in the state, and 1E losing by 72 percent in the county and 66.4 percent in the state.
Proposition 1F, to prevent pay raises for elected officials in deficit years, won 74.7 percent of votes countywide and 73.9 percent statewide.
Santa Barbara County saw only about 20 percent turnout in eligible voters Tuesday, and poll workers at several precincts said turnout for the special election seemed exceptionally low.
After casting her ballot Tuesday afternoon, Gwat Bhattacharji said she has voted ever since she became a citizen and doesn’t miss an election. “It’s a privilege to vote,” she said, adding that she understood why turnout was low.
“People are very disillusioned,” she said. “It’s the national psyche to overspend.”
Billie Alvarez, chief deputy registrar of voters for Santa Barbara County, said, “It’s been very slow out at the polling places. She said across the state in other counties, turnout has hovered at about 35 percent.
While voters were trickling into the polls Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously passed a resolution expressing its disapproval with state talks to borrow from local governments. The state is allowed to borrow local property taxes in dire financial situations, but can borrow only 8 percent of those taxes and only for three years. The amount the state would like to borrow amounts to $2.3 million, which represents about 2 percent of the city’s $107 million General Fund.
In solidarity with 120 other cities, Santa Barbara went on record agreeing with the League of California Cities, which has opposed local funds being moved for state use.
Unanimous discord was heard from all of the council members.
“Sacramento needs to wake up and do their job just like we do at the local level,” Councilman Grant House said. Borrowing without assurance of being paid back plus interest is not in the city’s best interest, he said.
Councilman Das Williams said Californians asking for no taxes and no cuts was not the answer. “We have to do one or the other,” said Williams, a 2010 Assembly candidate.
“They need to fix their own house,” Councilwoman Iya Falcone said in disagreement. “Balance your own budgets with your own money.”
Now that the items have failed, California faces a $21 billion budget gap. If the measures had passed, the deficit would have closed slightly to $15 billion.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already has been talking about myriad cuts to address the gap, including cuts to education, borrowing $2 billion from local governments, drilling for oil off the Santa Barbara coast and transferring state inmates to county prisons.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 05.20.09 @ 01:34 AM
Looking forward to the CA State SECRETARY OF STATE’S FINAL NUMBERS ON TURN-OUT BY ELIGIBLE VOTERS ON MAY 19TH. [Back on my memory drum is a tip o’ the tam to former CA SECRETARY of STATE Bill Jones - and his Mom in the Central Valley - for some pioneering, necessary but long-overdue yet critical cleaning house to make voting easier & more legal].
» on 05.20.09 @ 01:36 AM
ONCE MORE - Voters in CA “have wielded their awesome [quite considerate] power”!
» on 05.20.09 @ 03:32 AM
Time and time again Americans seem to want their cake and eat it too. You get what you pay for. You cannot expect there to be no cuts in jobs such as teachers, police and firefighters and at the same time want Sacramento to balance the budget. In addition, now that the propositions have failed the odds of California’s credit rating being lowered have been raised dramatically and this will cost us even more. When are we going to figure out that we cannot live above our means? When people hear of their local school letting a few teachers go hopefully they will understand that the failure of these proposition directly contrbuted to that action.
Ever since Prop 13 passed, which included all commerical real estate, California has collected almost the lowest per capita property tax of any state eventhough our real estate values skyrocketed for years. The result has been struggling every year to come up with a budget that supports our basic services. Our public education system is nearly last in the nation because we spend third to last per student.
» on 05.20.09 @ 04:01 AM
The low turn-out at the polls may also be the result of a trend to vote by mail. I wonder what the % of voters is if we include the mailed-in ballots.
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:33 AM
Perhpas because the legislators reason that they can cut education and expect us to vote in more tax increases to make up for the difference, rather then cutting in other areas. Win win for them, they get to keep their special interest projects adn big salaries, and education. I am glad voters sent legislators back to the budget yesterday, refusing to raise taxes. Legislators need to look again at where they can cut, and the people need to continue to write, protest, etc. their concerns about NOT letting education, law enforcement, etc. take the biggest hits.
» on 05.20.09 @ 06:02 AM
What I want to know is why the lottery money that was supposed to go to education isn’t enough for the education sieve. Don’t you understand that no matter how much they tax, they will find a way to waste it or put it in some high paid bureaucrat’s pocket? Enough already! Make do with what you have! Tired of children and global warming being the excuses of choice to tax tax tax!!
» on 05.20.09 @ 06:22 AM
Who works for whom??
The over staffed and over paid government workers will now make the cuts like you and I. The people won..
Now watch out for a bailout from Wash—Say no for our grand-kids—sake
» on 05.20.09 @ 06:23 AM
time to cut salaries, cut benefits, even cut some heads in gov’t. Yes, that would include safetly and teachers too. That is the state of the economy!
Sell state properties—maybe even the Prized Earl Warren showground. Increase college tuitions—why does it cost $9K to go to UC Berkeley the #21 ranked university and cost $14K to go the Penn state in Pen the #47 ranked college. Is it a terrible thing to have to take out a loan to go to college?
» on 05.20.09 @ 06:54 AM
I am not sure where “this is sad” got their facts - but according the the attached link California ranks #11 in the US for state tax collect per capita
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/289.html and #8 for state revenue per capita http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/284.html
California’s problem is a spending problem not a revenue problem.
Prop 13 is a fair tax—you pay on the purchase price of your home, just like you do when you by a coat or a piece of art. You then pay on the gains when you sell it. It is understandable and can be budgeted which is not the case of the pre-prop 13 tax.
» on 05.20.09 @ 07:42 AM
More of this to come… we are mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore…
» on 05.20.09 @ 08:36 AM
===
Councilman Das Williams said Californians asking for no taxes and no cuts was not the answer. “We have to do one or the other,” said Williams, a 2010 Assembly candidate.
“They need to fix their own house,” Councilwoman Iya Falcone said in disagreement. “Balance your own budgets with your own money.”
===
Uh, what? These statements are not in disagreement with each other; they aren’t even about the same subject. “Unanimous discord”? Oxymoron much?
@This is sad
“Ever since Prop 13 passed, which included all commerical real estate, California has collected almost the lowest per capita property tax of any state eventhough our real estate values skyrocketed for years. The result has been struggling every year to come up with a budget that supports our basic services. Our public education system is nearly last in the nation because we spend third to last per student.”
Exactly right, and that’s what Das was talking about. We need to eliminate the 2/3 requirement to raise revenues, and institute a split property tax roll so we can raise taxes on those commercial property cash cows, much of the benefits of which go to the Chinese and other foreign agents.
» on 05.20.09 @ 08:59 AM
Don’t blame prop 13 for our legislator’s inability to spend our tax dollars responsibly and live within their means like the rest of us. And thank you in advance to the other 49 states for bailing out CA with your share of the TARP money (you know that’s the next step).
» on 05.20.09 @ 09:20 AM
It is not that Californians want their cake and eat it too - we want NO tax increases and the budget to be balanced by PROPER budget cuts. Proper budget cuts means no cutting of line level positions which are the positions that do the work e.g. teachers, firefighters, and police officers. Cut the excessive number of administrators that exist in all level of government. That would save billions. Also cut the give away programs. Instead of people sitting on their couch watching TV all day, stop giving them free money (our tax money) and force them to go get a job like the rest of us! The politicians always try to scare us with cutting of our teachers, police, and firefighters but those important positions DO NOT need to be cut - all the other fluff does and can need to be cut. That is how to fix the $ problems.
» on 05.20.09 @ 09:49 AM
Voters gave a total NO CONFIDENCE vote to state government, turning down all the ballot measures, except the one limiting pay raises in tough times.
If this were a parliamentary system, the governor and all the legislators would have to step down, and call new elections. But we’re not. So, where do we go from here?
The job description for the governor, and every member of both legislative houses,
specifically lists passing an on-time, fully balanced budget as a top duty.
For years, they have all failed to do their sworn duty.
Now, under the spotlight, with bankruptcy looming, do they have the backbone to put all their big donor, special interest pals into the basement lavatory, then chain the doors, and actually do their job?
Effective immediately, the salaries, perks, per diems of the governor, his cabinet, his
staff, and ALL members of both houses of the legislature, should be FROZEN. So
should access to any and all PAC and “campaign fund” dollars.
For each day that goes by without a genuinely balanced budget, 1% of the benefit
package for ALL gubenatorial or legislative officials would be lost. No retroactivity.
If we actually force these junket happy, punt-every-tough-decision-to-the-voters
mob to do the job their oath of office requires, we’d very quickly have a budget, or a group of career pols who worked 2009 for us, for free. At this point, it doesn’t much matter which it is.
» on 05.20.09 @ 11:01 AM
So does this mean most Obamanites are against socialism? Thank God. I though all those teabaggers were supposed to be rich Republicans. Does that mean 60% of the voters are rich Republicans?
» on 05.20.09 @ 12:22 PM
Local, State, And Federal Government just don’t get it there is no money. The first thing they do is cut all the workers no one at the top gets cut, laid off or reduced in pay. I sell real estate run the numbers. The homes that are selling are reducing the tax base these folks got used to and spent and are still spending. So i say to you the next time there is a fire in California and there will be call all the political folks to put it out, and direct traffic and keep the looters out of the vacated homes.The lottery was supposed to help our schools, teachers are buying there own supplies (GET IT) what they say is never what we get. Our current Governor is doing exactly what we got rid of Gray Davis for.Any body fed up? Clean house on every election and put term limits on the folks in DC it is run in the dark ages and has to stop and we are the people who can do it…...
» on 05.20.09 @ 01:22 PM
Clear messages sent to legislators: 1) The system in California is totally broken. 2) Voters have no idea what they are voting for or what the impacts of their decisions will be. 3) That is because the system is broken. 4) Voters are idiots so why would anyone in their right mind set up a system that allows for ballot box budgeting and needs a 2/3 majority to pass a budget?
» on 05.20.09 @ 01:25 PM
Just because you are mad at government doesn’t mean it was wise to vote no for these props…
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:01 PM
I see, and legislators are NOT idiots SBres? We are mad at government for the very reason that they keep trying to tax us out of the problems THEY created. It was very wise to vote no because it would have been only the beginning of taxing to oblivion and no end to spending.
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:03 PM
Schwarzenegger is a girly man, instead of standing up to the tax and spend legislature he JOINS them!
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:07 PM
Hmm do you think the government will finally realize that oil drilling is the only answer left on the table? Doubt it.
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:08 PM
HISTORY LESSON on passage of Prop 13 (Spring 1978) = CA VOTERS had been promised property tax reform for two prior legislative sessions. Nothing was delivered. One one weekend, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann’s organization collected enough signatures in shopping malls to qualify this citizens’ initiative for the next election ballot. SINCE THAT TIME, CA State Legislators have subverted and circumvented the intent of Prop 13 through means devious and dastardly. What happened on May 19th has been building slowly over time since that Spring / Summer election of 1978! [Gov Jerry Brown opposed Prop 13, but wisely met with big city mayors immediately afterward “to work the will of the people”]! During that time, the successful GOP gubernatorial candidate from Pasadena went on a vacation to Hawaii, then woke from his silent slumbers at the Waikiki Beach, to discover Jerry Brown had won that subsequent Fall election, while the GOP was asleep at the wheel! Today: The CA State Legislature - absent pending recall elections for some in the Fall - must now cobble together a means to actually implement the distorted excuse of a State Budget which was eight months late - & not one of the “Gang of 121” (including a Governor, himself) has anyone to blame but themselves and the tiny pea-brained excuses of staff members who followed them around like lemmings headed over a cliff, by golly!
» on 05.20.09 @ 05:18 PM
“Councilman Das Williams said Californians asking for no taxes and no cuts was not the answer. “We have to do one or the other,” said Williams, a 2010 Assembly candidate.”
Das is exactly what we don’t need more of in the legislature. He obviously holds the voters in contempt. His quote says everything we need to know. What he really wants is both not one or the other.
Typical of the Council to think they are more bettah.
“Sacramento needs to wake up and do their job just like we do at the local level,” Councilman Grant House said.
Funniest statement EVER!!
» on 05.20.09 @ 06:09 PM
When it is time for the chopping block the government always acts like the only government employees are teachers, policemen and firefighters. Meanwhile the bloated government continues bloating. How about the DMV, Caltrans, various types of welfare departments, Women and Infant Children, California Housing Authority, Department of Health Services, California Energy Commission, California Environmental Protection Agency on and on and on come on use your imagination about where cuts can and should be made, but we would never terminate anything on the liberal agenda, only the things we need most. Right Arhhnold?
» on 05.21.09 @ 04:42 AM
Missing in all of this rage is the ignorance of the voters who elected these liars, cheats and thieves. We want everyone to vote so no one will “feel” disenfranchised. So we get the lowest common denominator for a government. “We have a right to vote for any scum bag that will raid the treasury to give me freebees.” Yes outrage is growing, mostly from the remains of the State’s hobbled conservatives. Meanwhile the middleclass/union class socialist are in a panic. Having been duped by wealthy limousine liberals, most of whom have parked their wealth out of reach of the parasites in Sacramento, the entitlement minded union workers are wondering what is going to happen now. Unemployment without benefits, that’s what. Welcome to the private sector. The State’s liberals honestly believe parasites can survive sucking off each other, the host having withered away some time ago. Reality is ringing their bell loudly now. All the entitlements and feel good crap that these leaches have thrown on the back, of what was once a thriving economy, are now sinking the boat. Parasites do not grow the host and only survive as the host does. Our state does everything it can to kill the host while sucking off it at the same time. This brought to you by voters who have borrowed themselves into bankruptcy.
» on 05.21.09 @ 08:22 AM
We have so many wonderful, successful, volunteer organizations in this country…..maybe we should ditch the government and have a volunteer group steer our ship.
» on 05.21.09 @ 08:24 AM
Start at the local level. SB City does not need 10 traffic planners when it got by with 2 as recently as 10 years ago. Mostly what they do is create traffic obstructions and driver enraging devices while removing car lanes and replacing them with empty bicycle lanes. Easy $1 million savings here, not to mention future pension costs.
» on 05.21.09 @ 08:42 AM
Right to the point AN50. Clearly put and on the nail. Good work. Tell it like it is, let the truth be told etc etc…
» on 05.21.09 @ 08:47 AM
The whole reason this vote was a wise one is that most normally apathetic, ignorant and ill informed-voters stayed home. The ones that rarely vote or pay no attention to politics and are incapable of smart decisions were simply not present - you know the ones that voted last time just because a black president would be cool but had no idea what he stood for? Anybody who thinks “getting out the vote” is a good thing should be shot. Just let people who are interested in voting and therefore well informed vote.
» on 05.21.09 @ 10:35 AM
I remember that when Arnold was first elected, there were 4 ballot initiatives that he supported that were designed to implement his campaign promises; the voters, having elected Arnold in a landslide, schizophrenically turned them all down. So blaming Arnold at this point is denying the voters’ culpability in the current mess. Maybe Arnold was counting on the voters to turn down these recent initiatives also, so he could take an ax to the budget his own way. Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of state spending moan and whine about the selfish taxpayers who have had enough…..
» on 05.21.09 @ 01:03 PM
No State employee should make more than the median salary in California. Result? A state surplus.
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