Don’t give them the easy way out.

Tomorrow, California voters head to the polls to vote on some of the silliest propositions ever proposed. Euphemistically numbered (or not) Props 55, 56, 57 and 58, they’re basically asking the citizens of California to give the government the opportunity to INCREASE our already crippling budget deficit.

55: requests voter approval for the state to borrow $12.3 BILLION, to be paid back over 30 years. 30 years! No one is even talking about how much interest that will really cost. This money is supposed to be used to fund school construction and renovation. Hello? What happened to the current education budget? Did it get used for something else?

56: reduces the number of voters in the Legislature needed to pass a budget, from a two-thirds majority to only 55 percent. Aren’t we paying them to be present and vote? Why would we lower this requirement?

57: requests voter approval for the state to borrow $15 BILLION, to be paid back in 9 to 14 years. This money will be used to reduce the state’s deficit. How much interest does $15 billion generate? Oh, about another $6.5 billion. That’s nearly 50%! What a screaming deal…for the creditor. By the way, using bonds to pay for the deficit has been ILLEGAL in California since California became a state.

58: prohibits most (but not ALL) future bonds from being issued after Prop 57. As Arnold said so many times over the weekend in those unwatchable TV ads: “Prop 57 lets us refinance the deficit one more time; Prop 58 means we tear up the ‘credit card’”.

Dude, tear it up anyway, BEFORE we take on more debt.

Sorry Arnold, but you’re gonna have to go to Plan B, as far as I’m concerned. Get your braintrust working on other alternatives, like say….raising taxes and cutting spending. I’m voting NO, NO, NO and NO.

More later…
Paul