If you think Bernard Madoff is the swindler of the year, stop and consider Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, the gang responsible for the ballot measures we'll be voting on in May.
Let's start with the misleading titles of their initiatives.
Take Proposition 1B. It's called "Education Funding. Payment Plan," but all it really does is allow the Legislature to continue stealing money from education with the promise that the state will kick in $9.3 billion to K-12 education and community colleges starting in 2011.
Or how about Proposition 1C, the "Lottery Modernization Act"? What this measure does is allow the state to borrow against future lottery money to fund this year's budget. It also promises to improve marketing of the lottery to sell more tickets. But by its nature, the lottery places a disproportionate burden on the poor, who are more likely to buy tickets. It's hard to see how that's "modernization."
Then there's Proposition 1D, with its clunky and dishonest title: "Protects Children's Services Funding. Helps Balance State Budget." How does it "protect" children's services funding? By taking $1.6 billion currently committed to children's health services and preschool and throwing it into the budget maw.
Proposition 1E, "Mental Health Services Funding. Temporary Reallocation," is another travesty. It simply grabs $450 million that voters specifically directed to mental health services.
The May ballot leaves me with some questions for my fellow Californians.
First, to my liberal friends: Can you really support propositions that will drastically cut services to the state's neediest -- especially after legislators increased the state sales tax, a regressive tax that places a larger burden on the poor?
And to my conservative friends: Will you be intimidated into voting for something you know is wrong? You should be against increases in taxes, not for ideological reasons but because they will be economically disastrous for California. The rich (and I am one of them) already have their mansions, airplanes and yachts. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong with increasing their taxes. But if the burden becomes too great, the rich will simply take their money (and the taxes they pay and the jobs they create) and move elsewhere. And it is the poor who will be hurt by such an exodus.
In the 1950s, Britain increased taxes on the rich astronomically. The result was a brain and talent drain that was deeply damaging to the country.
