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Californians Reject Big Budget Measures

Posted by GayPatriotWest at 11:31 pm - May 19, 2009.
Filed under: California politics

UP-UP-UP-UPDATE:  As I head to bed at 12:30 PST (3:30 GayPatriot blog time), these are the returns with 87.8% of precincts reporting:

N  1A ”Rainy Day” Budget Stabilization Fund 1,269,865 34.5% 2,401,086 65.5%
N  1B Education Funding. Payment Plan. 1,388,394 37.9% 2,273,903 62.1%
N  1C Lottery Modernization Act 1,308,063 35.8% 2,342,675 64.2%
N  1D Children’s Services Funding 1,268,490 34.7% 2,380,759 65.3%
N  1E Mental Health Funding 1,238,505 34.1% 2,392,099 65.9%
Y  1F Elected Officials Salaries 2,714,146 74.3% 943,497 25.7%

The “Yes” votes comes first, followed by “Yes” percentages, then the number of “No” votes, with their  percentages on the first five measures in bold.  

(Back to original post.)

With just over 17% 21% 22% 23% 31% 34% 44% 48% 58% of precincts reporting, measures 1A-E are going down to defeat, with “Yes” breaking 40% only on Measure 1-B.  

63.3% 63.5% 63.7% 64.0% 64.3% of Golden Staten Voters are rejecting 1-A. (UP-UP-UPDATE:  This percentage has remained pretty constant throughout the evening, it doesn’t look like there’s any new news to report.)  Voters are rejecting Propositions 1-B, 1-C, 1-D and 1-E with 60.5% 60.8%, 62.5% 62.9%, 63.3% 63.8% & 63.9% 64.4% respectively.

Measure 1-F to hold the line on elected officials salaries is passing handily.

This is a victory for those who prefer spending cuts to tax cuts and should send a lesson to legislators in Sacramento–as well as state capitols across the nation.  And even in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE:  From perusing the Secretary of State’s website, I only find one county where the measures are ahead . . . . it’s the home county of the Speaker of the House.  With 73.5% of precincts reporting, even voters in San Francisco are rejecting the measures.

UP-UPDATE:  All measures (save 1-B and 1-F) failing even in liberal Alameda County where Oakland is located.

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36 Comments

  1. I’m feeling proud of most of our State, always knew that SF is completely out of touch with reality. Hope the rest of the country is paying attention, like maybe our president???

    Comment by Leah — May 20, 2009 @ 12:09 am - May 20, 2009

  2. Just to break up the bandwagon you’re trying to ride here (from calitics.com):

    Just to make a point, in the city of Palmdale, a mildly conservative city in LA County, they have Measure B, a transient occupancy tax (hotels), on the ballot. Right now it’s passing with 67% of the vote.

    Don’t tell me this is a repudiation of taxes. It’s a repudiation of bad governance.

    This is not a liberal/conservative thing. Several progressive and liberal groups were against the props as well, and I join with the conservatives in blaming this on the “rogue” Republicans who voted with the Dems in passing the cr!p budget that led to this joke of an election.

    Now we see what the cuts will be. Arnold has said he’ll cut firefighters, teachers, etc. You know, unimportant things like that. Will he? What will the Dems do? They can’t raise taxes without GOP help, unless they manage to pull that simple-majority trick off, which some claim is unconstitutional. And Arnold spent the day in DC asking for permission to cut Medi-Cal. Ouch. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

    Comment by torrentprime — May 20, 2009 @ 12:22 am - May 20, 2009

  3. Humm…I wonder if Arnold and the Democrats are going to acknowledge that this is “A Mandate From The People” or whine about the consequences of the message the PEOPLE are sending them via the Ballots. Hopefully, the other Knuckle Heads in State Governments across the Nation will take the Big Hint that the People will be sending them – Cut Back on Your Ridiculous Spending!!! And…Washington DC “Inside the Beltway” best be getting the enormous message as well – You are not above the People, You are the Servants of the People. Political Class – You have been schooled!!!

    Comment by Duffy - Native Intelligence — May 20, 2009 @ 12:26 am - May 20, 2009

  4. Yes, I noticed that these measures were ONLY passing in San Francisco county. *SIGH* San Francisco is a great place to visit, but I could never, ever live there even if my life depended on it! We in So Cal always are ahead of the curve. This IS the begining of a conservative, Republican resurgence. While competence is an issue, the fact that the Democrats control both houses of the California legislature and have the enabler-in-chief in Gov. Benedict Arnold show how IMCOMPETENT these thugs, yes thugs, are in governing.

    Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — May 20, 2009 @ 12:47 am - May 20, 2009

  5. How much will Californians be celebrating once the state is unable to provide basic services to its citizens? Can’t wait to see the celebration in the streets when something like the DMV is only open a day or 2 a week. Or maybe if you call the fire department and they want a credit card before they raise their hoses (!)

    Comment by Kevin — May 20, 2009 @ 12:58 am - May 20, 2009

  6. Kevin, the state has enough money to pay for basic services; it’s the waste they have failed to cut. So, perhaps now the legislature will finally be forced to stand up to the public employee unions.

    Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 20, 2009 @ 1:07 am - May 20, 2009

  7. Can’t wait to see the celebration in the streets when something like the DMV is only open a day or 2 a week.

    That would be great. Don’t know about CA, but you can do a lot over the web here in FL. Only been to the DMV once about 9 years ago when I first moved here.

    Or maybe if you call the fire department and they want a credit card before they raise their hoses (!)

    If they had a dollar for every time that butt nugget of demagoguery is used, there’d be no problem. What’s worse, it’s pushed the hardest by the unions who would have no qualms striking and leaving the people they serve high and dry.

    And what about the lib’s buddy Mayor Bloomberg shutting down engine companies? I thought only Bush did that.

    Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 20, 2009 @ 1:40 am - May 20, 2009

  8. Just sayin, as the song goes “careful the wish you make”

    Comment by Kevin — May 20, 2009 @ 1:56 am - May 20, 2009

  9. No problem, Kevin.

    I hereby formally wish that the State of California undertakes budget cuts so deep, so “devastating” that all you foolish “the government can never spend too much” left-liberals think the world is coming to an end.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 2:22 am - May 20, 2009

  10. (Which it would be. The world of crypto-social-fascism, that you-all believe in so strongly.)

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 2:24 am - May 20, 2009

  11. Current results (not final):

    N 1A “Rainy Day” Budget Stabilization Fund 1,102,398 35.5% 1,998,928 64.5%
    N 1B Education Funding. Payment Plan. 1,206,398 38.9% 1,887,055 61.1%
    N 1C Lottery Modernization Act 1,137,126 36.8% 1,947,243 63.2%
    N 1D Children’s Services Funding 1,109,288 35.9% 1,972,654 64.1%
    N 1E Mental Health Funding 1,084,489 35.3% 1,981,376 64.7%
    Y 1F Elected Officials Salaries 2,325,334 75.3% 765,357 24.7%

    To all you crypto-social-fascist lefties who voted “yes” in CA today: HA! And SCREW YOU! :-)

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 2:29 am - May 20, 2009

  12. (the first percentages are Yes, the second are No)

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 2:30 am - May 20, 2009

  13. Kevin’s worst nightmare is coming true: the people of California realizing how much they really CAN do without in terms of government.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — May 20, 2009 @ 2:32 am - May 20, 2009

  14. Kevin, the state has enough money to pay for basic services; it’s the waste they have failed to cut. So, perhaps now the legislature will finally be forced to stand up to the public employee unions.

    Dan, in theory, I think you are correct. In practice, well that’s another story. Standing up to public employee unions is a start, but only a drop in the bucket. The members of the legislature have to stand up against the lobbyists and their supporters that donate to them huge sums of money that get them elected. Good luck to that in California, and everywhere else for that matter.

    Kevin’s worst nightmare is coming true: the people of California realizing how much they really CAN do without in terms of government.

    NDT, I’m not convinced. I think this was more of a vote against taxes. If these programs could somehow have been funded without increasing taxes, and increasing the debt, the yes side would have won on all of them.

    In any event, the vote is a good start. But it seems like California seems like it has quite a long way to go to fix things. Heck, it looks worse there than here in NJ. That’s pretty bad.

    Comment by Pat — May 20, 2009 @ 8:23 am - May 20, 2009

  15. Isn’t Arnold – one of the biggest backers of this measure – a republican? The fact is lots of different groups both progressive and conservative were for and against this bill. Its not the simplistic left v right battle that you folks are trying to paint. So ILC please stuff that hyperbolistic “crypto-social-fascist lefties” talk in a sack.

    Further less than 21% turned out. Seems to me there is more apathy than anything else right now in CA.

    Comment by gillie — May 20, 2009 @ 8:28 am - May 20, 2009

  16. In any event, the vote is a good start. But it seems like California seems like it has quite a long way to go to fix things.

    Agreed. CA is a badly-run State. This recent article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html) says:

    [New Hampshire] has no income or sales tax, yet it has high-quality schools and excellent public services. Students in New Hampshire public schools achieve the fourth-highest test scores in the nation — even though the state spends about $1,000 a year less per resident on state and local government than the average state and, incredibly, $5,000 less per person than New York. And on the other side of the ledger, California in 2007 had the highest-paid classroom teachers in the nation, and yet the Golden State had the second-lowest test scores.

    Read the whole thing; it’s interesting. But my point here is that the spending-regulation-bureacracy complex in CA, so beloved by state Democrats and not challenged effectively by Ahnuld, is a large part of the problem. Cutting it (not giving it yet more money) will be part of any real solution.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 8:55 am - May 20, 2009

  17. Isn’t Arnold – one of the biggest backers of this measure – a republican?

    gillie – Aren’t you aware, after all these years, that I am certainly *NOT* a Republican? And that I freely slam Republicans who engage in fiscal excesses? Oh, that’s right – You never learn anything on this blog.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 8:58 am - May 20, 2009

  18. gillie, as for why all you worshippers of State power (the kind of people who would have righteously voted ‘yes’ on CA’s tax increases yesterday) are, in fact, fascists, see here:

    http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Politics/dp/0385511841

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 9:02 am - May 20, 2009

  19. #18
    So is Arnold a fascist?
    Does he love State Power?

    Or is it perhaps not as simplistic as your sloganing suggests?

    Comment by gillie — May 20, 2009 @ 9:10 am - May 20, 2009

  20. NDT, I’m not convinced. I think this was more of a vote against taxes.

    Oh no. Trust me, we here in California have been bombarded for months with advertisements, mailings, flyers, phone calls, slanted “news” stories, and the like from the Obama Party and its wannabes like Schwarzenegger about how voting these propositions down was opening the seventh seal and releasing budget Armageddon.

    We know every threat the Obama Party has made, from slashing education to calling people homophobes for voting against it, and we’ve said “Tough cookies. We have to balance our own budgets and cut waste; so do you, and you’re just going to have to deal with losing the money-laundering conduit you tap to get state funds for your re-election campaigns through the public employee unions.”

    This is the one thing I love about this state; it’s the purest bastion of direct democracy in which I’ve ever lived.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — May 20, 2009 @ 9:18 am - May 20, 2009

  21. So is Arnold a fascist?
    Does he love State Power?

    No, gillie, you are and you do. Ahnuld is, rather, a weak fool. (Fascists have fellow-travellers, you know.)

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 10:07 am - May 20, 2009

  22. 5 Steps to Fix California

    1. Across the board 30% budget cut. Nothing is spared. The state has 250,000 workers – lay off 20%. Slash the unholy benefits packages of the public employee union.

    2. A Constitutional Amendment requiring voter approval to raise income taxes and property taxes, 65% majority voter approval required for passage. Repeal Prop. 13.

    3. Part-time Legislature.

    4. Repeal Ballot Initiative Law or severely restrict it to ensure that any ballot initiative requiring spending also requires that it be paid for through an off-setting tax hike (see #2).

    5. Reduce Corporate business taxes by 50%. Make California and attractive place for businesses again and jobs will return, revenue will go up, and the state will prosper once more.

    Discuss…

    Comment by Robert — May 20, 2009 @ 10:13 am - May 20, 2009

  23. Yes on all, with #4 being a required offset — i.e., any mandatory funding formula or change must also carry with it the means to raise said funding or change without tapping current revenues.

    #1 is the most blatantly obvious way to bring the state budget into balance, which means it will never happen. Instead, what we’ll get is more of the Obama Party taking law enforcement, schools, and everything else hostage so that their fatass 4 hour day clerks who make six figures and have guaranteed 100% pensions and retiree healthcare will continue paying into the Obama Party re-election coffers.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — May 20, 2009 @ 10:39 am - May 20, 2009

  24. My prediction: Local tax districts and counties in California will now threaten to cut off emergency personnel and slash roads projects in order to punish voters if local taxes aren’t raised.

    Comment by Ignatius — May 20, 2009 @ 10:58 am - May 20, 2009

  25. Oh, they were already doing that, Ignatius. But I think people have figured out by now that those cuts are at the behest of and to protect the gold-plated salary and benefits of the fatass unionized DMV clerks who look at you as if you’re something that missed the trap set for you under the sink right before they take their two-hour lunch.

    The end started becoming apparent when the state wholeheartedly rejected the repeal of the term-limits law and pushed through a complete overhaul of the redistricting process. That opened a crack in the Obama Party political machine; this rejection and the resulting mass layoffs are an attack on the fundamental funding device of said machine.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — May 20, 2009 @ 11:19 am - May 20, 2009

  26. For the first time in my life I am proud to be a Californian….
    The voter have sent a clear message to Sacramento. I’m hoping that senators and congressmen around the country are paying attention – Americans do not want endless taxes!
    Enough with useless bureaucrats and union bosses.

    Comment by Leah — May 20, 2009 @ 11:49 am - May 20, 2009

  27. ILC sez: I hereby formally wish that the State of California undertakes budget cuts so deep, so “devastating” that all you foolish “the government can never spend too much” left-liberals think the world is coming to an end.

    Well AMEN to that, my brutha.

    Secondly, for all of those who joked about the strength of the Tea Party Movement…. who is laughing now in CA?

    Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — May 20, 2009 @ 12:44 pm - May 20, 2009

  28. Robert (#22) — They all look like sound proposals. The ONLY problem I would forsee is if you layoff 20% of state workers, they will go on unemployment. So we are paying for them in one way or another.

    Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — May 20, 2009 @ 12:46 pm - May 20, 2009

  29. Hooray for California voters! Despite the spending advantage of 10:1 (pushing approval), the voters saw past the deceptions. Incredibly, the LA Times today blames the voters for the state budget mess!

    http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hunh-its-voters-fault.html

    Comment by Juju — May 20, 2009 @ 1:00 pm - May 20, 2009

  30. @Bruce – true, but that is also a temporary thing. Unemployment, even in CA, doesn’t last forever.

    My fear is that the state will continue doing half-measures, hoping to just get by long enough for the recession to soften so they can go back to doing exactly what they were doing before. California’s problems are long-term structural problems that reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic just won’t solve. While there might be some short-term hits, the unemployment and the reduction in business tax revenue for example, the long-term benefits outweigh them.

    Comment by Robert — May 20, 2009 @ 1:20 pm - May 20, 2009

  31. Oh no. Trust me, we here in California have been bombarded for months with advertisements, mailings, flyers, phone calls, slanted “news” stories,

    Okay, NDT. I’ll stand corrected.

    Comment by Pat — May 20, 2009 @ 2:14 pm - May 20, 2009

  32. We should add a new Prop… a la Prop 1F successor. No pay (absolutely zero salary), benefits, and perks for all government officials (elected or not) and staff if we have a state deficit.

    Comment by anon2273892 — May 20, 2009 @ 2:58 pm - May 20, 2009

  33. I don’t understand how liberalism, massive tax increases on the productive, is routed so badly in a liberal state like California. Do even liberals have their limits? I find it funny that the first reaction of the leftists on this blog is…..”okay we’ll see how funny it is when there are no firemen and police.” Their first reaction is to sow fear. America’s overtaxation has noting to do with defense, police or fire protection. It has everything to do with govenments of all sorts doing things, badly, that they were never meant to do. Subsidize the losers. Money to illegals. I heard HALF of Cali’s budget shortfall could be eliminated if illegal immigration was dealt with. Education for illegals, medical care to illegals. etc.

    Comment by Gene on Pennsylvania — May 20, 2009 @ 5:10 pm - May 20, 2009

  34. When are state and local govenments going to start mining the gold mine of resources under their feet. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs to be had drilling for billions of dollars worth of oil in the USA. What other country, sitting on trillions of dollars worth of a resourse, shakes thier head and says, ehh no thanks, we’ll build millions of windmills instead. And hope someone buys them. Moronic. Liberalism.

    Comment by Gene on Pennsylvania — May 20, 2009 @ 5:14 pm - May 20, 2009

  35. #33 Gene – Well, note that approximately 35% of CA voters did vote *for* the tax increases. Let’s take that as a measure of the hardcore liberal / Big Government types in CA… the ones who really believe that more taxes, spending and socialization are always the way to go. 35% is huge!

    The group that controls elections in CA (and America) is the “mushy middle”. These are the people who are easily intimidated / misled by the liberal media (a la the 2006 and 2008 elections), but who are nonetheless human beings with limits, and in CA, those limits have been reached, so they finally said “no” to tax increases.

    [The hardcore liberals'] first reaction [to their defeat here] is to sow fear. [But] America’s overtaxation has noting to do with defense, police or fire protection.

    Indeed.

    When are state and local govenments going to start… drilling

    But but but… that would be *production*. Production is bad, in the hard-left-liberal worldview.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — May 20, 2009 @ 5:46 pm - May 20, 2009

  36. The way the cuts will work is that police and firefighters will be cut, but not the former state legislators getting six-figure salaries for sitting on various useless “commissions”, nor will the $13 billion spent annually on services to illegal immigrants be cut, nor will any of the state’s Assistant Coordinators of Environmental Transgender Diversity be out of work.

    Idiots like Kevin cheer on tax increases and government expansion, but never question whether everything the government does is really necessary.

    Comment by V the K — May 21, 2009 @ 8:55 am - May 21, 2009

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