A funny thing happened at the editorial board meeting this week:
I found myself voting with the majority on most of the bonds and
propositions. This is bizarre. For years I have been entitling my
November picks as
”
The Far Right Voter’s Guide.
”
Now that the economy is in disarray and the state teeters on the
edge of bankruptcy, my moderate and my left of center colleagues
are becoming fiscal conservatives.
A funny thing happened at the editorial board meeting this week: I found myself voting with the majority on most of the bonds and propositions. This is bizarre. For years I have been entitling my November picks as “The Far Right Voter’s Guide.” Now that the economy is in disarray and the state teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, my moderate and my left of center colleagues are becoming fiscal conservatives.
They finally see that we cannot go on passing bonds and raising taxes and hoping that it will all magically turn out for the best. Perhaps I have not really been on the fringe all these years. Perhaps I am only cutting edge. Scary thought.
So: NO on Propositions 1A, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10, and on Measures A and B. We cannot afford more bonds, taxes, and expenses. Not now, and maybe not ever.
Prop 11, redistricting, received a blanket YES from the editorial board. The board is a politically astute bunch and, irrespective of political affiliation, loathes the gerrymandering of the present system. Even a committee will have to turn out a better product than the patchwork quilt arrangement favored by politicians bent on maintaining their power base. Prop 12, Veteran’s Bond Act, YES. Throughout its 86-year history, the Cal-Vet program has been totally supported by the participating veterans, with no cost to taxpayers. Besides, more people need to be buying houses and farms right now while the real estate market is bottoming out.
Unfortunately, my colleagues could not maintain their newfound fiscal conservatism on measures involving local bonds, and their reactions to propositions involving social issues were mixed at best.
The following are the right and proper ways to vote: Prop 4: Parental Notification of Abortion. YES. This proposition requires that parents of a minor child be notified before anyone performs an abortion on their daughter. A waiver can be obtained for the girl whose parents are abusive. At present, a 13-year-old can be knocked up by her 25-year-old “boyfriend,” get an abortion without her parent’s knowledge, and go on being abused by the predator.
Prop 8: Marriage. YES. The entire prop reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Polygamy stays illegal. Homosexual unions remain “domestic partnerships.”
Prop 9: Victim’s rights. YES. This prop is a rehash of current law that certain judges ignore, plus the stipulation that when restitution is made, victims are compensated before fines are paid, plus a curtailment of the number of parole hearings a lifer can receive. The legislative analyst thinks it will save the state money. What a concept.
Measure C (NO) is an advisory vote to let the Valley Transportation Authority know it is doing a crappy job.
Measure D (NO) says we want to be able to go on telling them how they are doing.
Measure E (NO) would switch Gilroy city elections to even years. This would indeed result in lower costs to the city. But currently only reasonably knowledgeable people who bother to keep up with local politics vote in city elections. I like it that way; it gives us an educated electorate. I would support a measure to allow all mail-in ballots for city elections to defray expenses.
Measure F: NO. We can’t afford more bonds and taxes for a new library now, even if the librarians would prohibit the display, exhibition, and distribution of obscenity to minors on library Internet terminals, as required by state law. Instead they keep chanting the American Library Association mantra of “Open access to all patrons regardless of age.”
Measure P: NO. At the risk of repeating myself, we can’t afford more bonds and taxes now, not even for a new high school, and particularly not for a wish list of facilities improvements that dangles a new high school before the eyes of the voters, then fritters the money away on facilities improvements that should be taken care of by routine maintenance. Deja vu.
Taxpayers have to live within their means. When are the federal, state, and local governments going to learn to?
Next Week: The non-socialist voter’s guide to the candidates