The Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association (SBCTA) has made the following recommendations regarding the May 19, special election:
•PROPOSITION 1A -      "Stabilizes State Budget" - VOTE NO
•PROPOSITION 1B -      ”Protects Education Funding" - VOTE NO
•PROPOSITION 1C -      "Lottery Modernization Act" - VOTE NO
•PROPOSITION 1D -      "Protects Children’s Services Funding" - VOTE NO
•PROPOSITION 1E  -     "Children’s Mental Health Services" - VOTE NO
•PROPOSITION 1F -      "Elected Officials’ Salaries" - VOTE NO

The proposition of most concern to the SBCTA board and executive committee is Proposition 1A. The other five propositions are mainly budget gimmicks.

Proposition 1A is a massive tax increase masquerading as an annual spending limit. In fact, Prop 1A is a disingenuous legislative sleight of hand that, if approved by the voters, will become a spending floor while at the same time creating perverse incentives for new and higher taxes and more runaway government expenditures. By limiting state spending to population, for example, Prop 1A creates an intended or unintended incentive to grow the size of the state's population and to use more taxpayer funded give away programs to do it.  

But perhaps worse still is what Prop 1A does vis-à-vis taxes. The legislature took the grossly irresponsible step of raising taxes in the middle of a recession a few months ago. And if passed, Prop 1A will extend these new and mostly regressive taxes for an additional TWO years. The only thing more damaging to a recessionary economy than so-called "temporary tax increases", is extending them beyond their original sunset date.

With our state's unemployment rate now at 11.2% and climbing, California should be cutting taxes, not raising them. And we certainly should not be extending those that are currently scheduled to sunset in 2011.

Lastly, Prop 1A will result in a false sense of security for California voters who are rightly fed up with their out of control, tax and spend legislature. While believing they have finally put strict controls on state spending, California voters will have actually lost what could be their last opportunity to control spending the right way; by limiting state spending to a specific percentage of the state's gross domestic output.

Pegging the state's annual spending to a fixed percentage of annual economic output, as opposed to the rate of increase in state population + inflation, is an important policy distinction. The reason is because what California is lacking today are the needed incentives for economic growth. What the state isn't lacking are incentives for new social service programs that function as magnets for more immigration. Therefore, for these and many other reasons not even mentioned, we urge California voters to reject PROPOSITION 1A and the other five ballot propositions as well.

Joe Armendariz
Executive Director
Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association