Voters turned frugal on election day, turning down several state and local bonds and taxes -- and raising questions about prospects for $47 billion in state bonds proposed for the November ballot.
The two failed state ballot measures would have used $600 million in bonds to build and refurbish public libraries, and raised income taxes on wealthy Californians by $2.4 billion annually for preschools.
Their demise could give pause to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders as they contemplate how to persuade Californians to support the richest series of bond measures in state history.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said the failure of the library ballot was a "sobering" warning not to assume that voters would embrace the massive infrastructure bond package negotiated by Schwarzenegger and the Legislature this spring.
"We're well advised not to be complacent," Perata said. "It's sobering. It was a very modest proposal for something that most of us would say is an important element to California's culture and history, and it was defeated."
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), who is pushing for the November bond package, said the bonds' failure was an indication of "initiative fatigue."
"Everybody needs to campaign for these bonds" or the measures could lose, said Nunez, adding that he was referring to Schwarzenegger and the governor's November opponent, Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides. "That's the only way we're going to get those bonds passed," Nunez said.
Even as the statewide electorate turned down Propositions 81, the library bond, and 82, the preschool initiative, voters in five counties rejected sales-tax hikes that would have funded transportation projects.
About half of the roughly 60 local school bond measures statewide were approved -- "a historically low rate," according to California's Coalition for Adequate School Housing. In San Diego County, voters approved one hospital bond but rejected another.
Five propositions on the November ballot call for a combined $47 billion in bonds to improve ports, roads, schools and levees and start building a high-speed train system. The governor and Legislature approved $37 billion of that sum this year.
"Everyone has to be a little humble and understand that even if it appears to be mom and apple pie, voters take any tax measure, including statewide bonds, seriously," said pollster and political consultant Heidi von Szeliski of HVS & Associates in San Diego.
