California Voters Must Reject Prop 25. It's a Misleading Effort to Raise Your Taxes

A special message to California voters - you must vote NO on Prop 25 if you have any hope of keeping the legislature from raising taxes and fees at will.  This proposition has been touted in the media with highly misleading ads that suggest that this measure will "punish" legislators by withholding their pay if they don't pass a budget on time.  That's all smoke and mirrors.

By changing the requirements for passing a budget and "budget-related" bills it opens the door for easy simple majority passage of tax and fee hikes, constitutional changes, and assaults on taxpayer protections currently in place.

Here's some of what the Wall Street Journal had to say:

“The most pernicious is Proposition 25, which is being sold as a good government measure to end the state’s annual fiscal follies and pass a budget on time. But what matters more than how a budget passes is what’s in it. And the two-thirds rule that has prevailed since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 has been the lone restraint on the government unions and their political valets who have spent California to the brink of insolvency….

Proposition 25 is deceptive because its “intent” language that purports to explain its meaning to voters claims that the law “retains a two-thirds vote requirement for taxes.” But “intent” sections aren’t included in the state Constitution. Instead, the proposition clears the way for a straight majority vote for budgets and the more amorphous category of bills “related to the budget.” That’s an exception wide enough to drive a tax increase through, and nearly every state taxpayer group and their legal experts are convinced that this is an attempt to end-run Proposition 13.”

Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown was opposed to Prop 13 when it passed in 1978 and has stated that "nothing is off the table" today. He will use these changes in law to attack Prop 13 and raise the property taxes of every California property owner.

There have been several efforts in recent elections to dilute the requirements for passing tax hikes and approving the budget and all of those have been rejected.  However, the backers of Prop 25 cleverly hid it's real purpose behind language that made it sound like it would punish the legislature.  In fact, it will reward those who would take more of your money.  They're lying to you.  It's imperative to the financial wellbeing of taxpayers that Californians reject Prop 25.