Category Archives: Ballot initiatives

The Reporter: Vacaville Teachers Association supports Proposition 30

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By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com

Of the two state tax measures on the November ballot, Vacaville Unified teachers support Prop. 30 because the so-called “governor’s initiative,” if passed, prevents automatic trigger cuts.

Speaking to the district’s board of trustees Thursday, Moira McSweeney, president of the Vacaville Teachers Association, acknowledged both initiatives — the other is Prop. 38 — may pass but asserted Prop. 30, the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012, would stop nearly $500 per-student budget cuts in the district. On the other hand, Prop. 38, Our Children, Our Future: Local Schools and Early Education Investment and Bond Debt Reduction Act, would not, she said.

If both pass, whichever gains more votes will take effect, but “only Proposition 30 keeps income tax increases away from the middle class,” McSweeney said during the trustees meeting in the Educational Services Center.

via Vacaville Teachers Association supports Proposition 30.

EdSource Today: Prop 38 sponsor says ed initiative will upset polls

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By Kathy Baron and John Fensterwald

Confident that Californians will tax themselves to send more money to their local schools, Molly Munger is preparing for “a big air war” – extensive TV advertising to persuade voters to pass Proposition 38.

The Los Angeles attorney is bankrolling the “other” education initiative, one that would  raise personal income taxes by $10 billion to fund K-12 and early childhood education. From the start of the campaign, Munger’s initiative has been trailing in the polls behind Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s ballot measure to raise $6 billion from sales tax and the income tax on wealthy Californians. Munger has donated $20 million to the campaign so far and won’t say how much more she’ll spend.

via Prop 38 sponsor says ed initiative will upset polls – by Kathy Baron and John Fensterwald.

The Reporter: Vacaville Unified School District trustees to mull tax initiatives

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By Richard Bammer/RBammer@TheReporter.com

When they meet Thursday, Vacaville Unified School District leaders will hear an update on two state tax initiatives, Props. 30 and 38, vote on the final budget for 2011-12, vote to approve the Early College High School or Program and hear an update on Common Core State Standards.

Trustees likely will get a detailed report on the two tax initiatives from Kari Sousa, VUSD’s chief business officer.

Prop. 30 is the so-called “governor’s initiative,” the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012. If approved, it will temporarily raise income taxes for those making more than $250,000 per year for seven years while adding a quarter-cent boost to the state sales tax for four years.

via Vacaville Unified School District trustees to mull tax initiatives.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Vallejo school’s trustee’s election cycle may change

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The Vallejo school board will discuss Wednesday the possibility of changing the year its members are elected.

The staggered school board elections are currently held every two years on the odd years. The last election was in November, and the next for three full-term board seats will be in November 2013.

The report is being brought to the board in part on the request of Burky Worel, a former school board member and a regular attendee of Vallejo school board meetings.

via Vallejo school’s trustee’s election cycle may change.

The Reporter Opinion: Yes on Prop. 38: Time to fix California schools

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By Paul Boghosian

The author, a Vallejo resident, is president of the California State PTA 18th District, which includes Solano County, is chairman of district presidents.

Before billions were cut from California’s education budget, schools in my district were always staffed with a nurse to aid sick children, a librarian to help foster ideas and a counselor to point students in the right direction. Now, all of these positions have vanished and our children are paying the price.

Since 2008, political leaders have voted over and over to cut education funding by more than $20 billion. We’ve lost more than 40,000 educators and staffers, and California now has the largest class sizes of any state in the nation. Statistics like these are simply unacceptable for a state whose economy ranks within the top 10 largest in the world.

via Yes on Prop. 38: Time to fix California schools.

The Reporter Letter: Schools need Prop. 30

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I urge all voters to vote yes on Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax plan, Proposition 30. This plan calls for a small increase in the sales tax and an increase in income tax for the wealthy. If the Vacaville Unified School District fails, people will leave Vacaville. No member of my family is a student or administrator in the district, and yet I ask all voters to vote yes on the governor’s tax plan in November.

Edward S. Stahl

Vacaville

via Schools need Prop. 30.

Dan Walters: Can Jerry Brown scare up a victory?

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Gov. Jerry Brown spent much of last week trying to scare California voters into voting for higher taxes.

Brown, speaking to community college students in San Diego, promised “real suffering by you and really our whole future” if voters reject his sales and income tax measure, Proposition 30.

It’s a somewhat disingenuous argument, albeit a clever one, rooted in the poll-tested assumption that education is the single most popular state program.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/26/4757485/dan-walters-can-jerry-brown-scare.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Can Jerry Brown scare up a victory?.

The Educated Guess: Brown struggling to sell Prop 30 to wary voters

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by John Fensterwald

Rework your talking points, Governor. You risk losing the message war over Proposition 30.

That’s one implication of the latest poll on Jerry Brown’s tax initiative for the November ballot. Most Californians continue to back it, but not by a comfortable majority. Pollsters are predicting a tight race to the finish.

In the PACE/USC Rossier poll, 31 percent (blue) said they’d strongly support Proposition 30 and 24 percent somewhat support it (orange), while 23 percent strongly oppose (brown) and 12 percent somewhat oppose (green), with the rest undecided.

According to the online poll by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and the USC Rossier School of Education of 1,041 likely voters, 54.5 percent say they favor and 35.9 percent say they oppose Prop 30, with 9.6 percent undecided – results that are in line with other recent surveys.

via Brown struggling to sell Prop 30 to wary voters – by John Fensterwald.

Dan Walters: Complexity obscures California school money

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When Gov. Jerry Brown labeled the state budget a “pretzel palace of incredible complexity,” he almost certainly had in mind the budget’s largest, most complicated piece – financing schools.

Proposition 98, a measure that barely won voter approval in 1988, supposedly dictates what schools and their 6 million students are to receive from state and local taxes, but it’s so dense that only a few analysts profess to understand it, and they rarely agree.

Rather than take politics out of school finance, therefore, Proposition 98 invites political manipulation.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/19/4738410/dan-walters-complexity-obscures.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Complexity obscures California school money.

SacBee: Brown moves tax campaign to the classroom, downplays parks scandal

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By David Siders

Gov. Jerry Brown, starting to campaign in earnest for his Nov. 6 ballot initiative to raise taxes, labored Wednesday to put the state parks scandal and other potentially damaging developments at the Capitol behind him, hoping to refocus public attention on schools.

“This is not about any other issue,” said Brown, flanked by students outside New Technology High School in Sacramento. “It’s not about the environment, it’s not about pensions, it’s not about parks. It’s about one simple question: Shall those who’ve been blessed beyond imagination give back 1 or 2 or 3 percent for the next seven years, or shall we take billions out of our schools and colleges to the detriment of the kids standing behind us and the future of our state?”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/16/4730389/brown-moves-tax-campaign-to-the.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via Brown moves tax campaign to the classroom, downplays parks scandal.

The Reporter: Travis Unified School District delays initiative decisions

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By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com

Deferring support for dueling November ballot measures, an update on the 2012-13 budget, and renovation of Scandia Elementary took up the lion’s share of discussion during Tuesday’s Travis Unified School District governing board meeting.

Trustees Gary Craig and Ivery Hood, saying they needed more information about Gov. Jerry Brown’s and Molly Munger’s competing tax initiatives, urged the five-member board to put off supporting one or the other — or both — until the board meets again Sept. 11 in the Travis Education Center in Fairfield.

“We need to clearly communicate to the public” what happens if either one fails, said Craig, adding, “Before we vote, we need to get information out to the voters.”

“I don’t have enough information,” about the tax measures, “but I understand the impact if it (the governor’s initiative) doesn’t pass,” said Hood. “I need more time” to study the propositions.

via Travis Unified School District delays initiative decisions.

Daily Republic: Solano College and Travis Unified to discuss state tax measures

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by Danny Bernardini

FAIRFIELD — Officials with the Solano Community College District and the Travis School District this week will discuss whether to support state tax measures that aim to help school funding.

Both districts will address the notion at meetings this week, while the Fairfield-Suisun School District included several budget scenarios concerning the tax initiatives at its meeting last week.

Both Gov. Jerry Brown and attorney Molly Munger have proposed tax initiatives that have been touted as benefitting schools. Brown’s Proposition 30 and Munger’s Proposition 38 have drawn endorsements from school groups across the state.

via School districts to discuss state tax measures.

The Reporter: Solano Community College District leaders likely to vote for governor’s ballot initiative at Wednesday’s meeting

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When they meet Wednesday in Fairfield, Solano Community College District leaders likely will vote to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s November ballot initiative, the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act.

If approved, the measure, which is competing with another proposed by Southern California lawyer Molly Munger, will raise taxes on people earning more than $250,000 per year for seven years and boost the state’s sales tax by one-quarter cent, to 7.5 percent, for four years.

via Solano Community College District leaders likely to vote for ….

Dan Walters: Censorship rears its ugly head in California Senate

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Let’s not mince words about what the state Senate’s Democratic leader did Wednesday. It was self-serving censorship, the sort of thing that one expects from tinpot dictators, not from those who fancy themselves to be progressive civil libertarians.

Someone acting for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg suddenly cut off cable television access to a legislative hearing to air facts and arguments about pending ballot measures.

The Senate Governance and Finance Committee called the hearing – as required by law – into three tax increases (Propositions 30, 38 and 39) and altering the state’s budgetary procedures (Proposition 31).

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/10/4712081/dan-walters-censorship-rears-its.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Censorship rears its ugly head in California Senate.

The Educated Guess: School funding primer: A is for Alligator

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by John Fensterwald

It’s called “the alligator chart” because it looks like a reptile’s gaping maw. Nicknamed by its creator, the Sacramento-based education consulting firm School Services of California, it’s one graph that voters should clip on their refrigerators to remind them what’s at stake this November when they consider more money for K-12 schools. School Services shared an updated version with district officials recently during its annual budget management seminars around the state.

If the governor’s tax initiative fails, the gap between what is statutorily owed K-12 schools and what they will receive will be a record gap of $1,944 per student: a deficit factor of 28.8 percent. Source: School Services of California, Inc. (Click to enlarge.)

California’s school funding law, Proposition 98, is complex, and the Legislature has tortured the language to make it more abstruse. The alligator chart cuts through verbiage to visually capture  how much money has been cut since 2007-08, the last year that the Legislature funded schools without IOUs for lost cost-of-living increases or direct cuts. Since then, the difference between what schools were entitled to receive (tip of the snout of the alligator’s open mouth) and what they have gotten (the yawning bottom jaw) has grown ominously large.

via School funding primer: A is for Alligator – by John Fensterwald.

Dan Walters: California’s ‘wall of debt’ has risen even higher

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Jerry Brown devoted the first months of his second governorship last year to dickering with Republicans on placing a multibillion-dollar tax increase before voters.

The negotiations failed, and eventually Brown turned to an initiative. His tax hike measure, Proposition 30, will be on the November ballot.

During his drive for Republican votes, Brown cited repaying “a wall of debt” as a major justification for a tax increase.

During the final years of predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship, as recession deepened and tax revenue plummeted, Schwarzenegger and the Legislature propped up the budget by borrowing heavily, both formally and informally.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/03/4688036/dan-walters-californias-wall-of.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: California’s ‘wall of debt’ has risen even higher.

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown may be the issue in California’s tax initiative duel

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Gov. Jerry Brown released an Internet ad the other day, asking voters to embrace his multibillion-dollar tax increase.

But the word “tax” is nowhere to be found. The closest Brown or other speakers in the tightly scripted ad come to the T-word is “new revenues.” Mostly, it touts Brown’s efforts to cut state spending and declares – wrongly – that the state’s credit rating has improved.

“We’ve made progress, but we still have very serious budget problems in California,” Brown says in the ad. “We simply have to take a stand against further budget cuts for schools or for our public safety. To do that, we’re going to the people.”

Opponents of Proposition 30, which would raise sales taxes slightly on everyone, and income taxes sharply on high-income Californians, don’t shy away from “tax.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/31/4676346/dan-walters-jerry-brown-may-be.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Jerry Brown may be the issue in California’s tax initiative duel.

The Reporter Opinion: Dueling Ballot Measures: No easy choices when it comes to education funding

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By John Niederkorn, Ph.D.

Make no mistake. California public schools — the programs, services and quality of service to students — are being diminished because of the continued reductions of state funding. This reduction began about three decades ago, but since 2008, with the advent of the California fiscal crisis, state funding of our schools has dropped precipitously. California is now among the five lowest states for per-pupil funding, and our student academic performance mirrors this level of support.

In the absence of effective state legislative leadership in support of public education, two tax initiatives have qualified for the November ballot. Proposition 30 is “The Schools and Local Public Safety and Protection Act of 2012,” or the governor’s tax initiative. This initiative provides for a 1/4 percent sales tax increase for four years, and a tiered income tax increase for high-income earners (above $250,000) for seven years.

The total tax revenues generated are projected to be $8.5 billion in 2012-13, and then $6.5 billion thereafter. Of these additional tax revenues, $2.9 billion is obligated to K-14 public education; the remaining funds to support other state General Fund obligations.

This “flat funding” proposal stabilizes public education funding for 2012-13. But it does not begin to rebuild the staffing, program or services that have been reduced or eliminated in recent years.

via Dueling Ballot Measures: No easy choices when it comes to ….

Dan Walters: Will California go the way of Pennsylvania?

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What happened within minutes Monday may just be coincidence, but if so, it’s a cosmically foreboding one.

In Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown released the first online ad of his campaign to persuade California voters to endorse his sales and income tax increase measure. One snippet declared that under Brown, “California’s bond rating is now positive.”

It was, to put it charitably, misleading. In fact, California has the lowest bond rating of any state now and, according to a recent survey by Pew’s Center on the States, the worst credit rating record over the past 11 years.

In Pennsylvania, state officials were told by Moody’s, a major bond rating agency, that the state is being downgraded because of “large and growing pension fund liabilities.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/17/4635362/dan-walters-will-california-go.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Will California go the way of Pennsylvania?.

Dan Walters: Gov. Jerry Brown’s pitch on schools very risky

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The campaign to establish a state lottery nearly 30 years ago adopted “schools win too” as its theme. And it worked.

Voters responded because education is the single most popular category of public spending, even though in reality, the lottery provides schools with little or nothing in extra money.

This year, Gov. Jerry Brown is using the same theme to sell voters on raising sales and income taxes. The opening words of his measure’s official ballot title are “Temporary taxes to fund education …”

Whether schools would actually benefit from the taxes is very uncertain; he has, however, signed a bill that would slash school spending by $5.5 billion should it fail.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/15/4631805/dan-walters-gov-jerry-browns-pitch.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Gov. Jerry Brown’s pitch on schools very risky.