And another special election graces California. I really wish that “divide the state” proposal was on this month’s ballot. It would be perfect placement too because this election is the one where the state legislature gets cowardly and tries to get the public to cosign their budget compromise. I’ve never heard of a special election being needed to pass an annual budget, but hey, California is a trend setter. You other 49 states pay attention.

To my surprise it looks like there is some real anger brewing among the populace. The five ballot measures needed to pass the compromise budget are polling poorly. I actually had the impression people would blindly accept any budget after the long budget showdown we had a few months ago. Perhaps it has been the events at the federal level that have stirred up some anger, but it looks like Californians want to reject these measures altogether to send a message they’re tired of a state government that never stops growing. Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about California’s epic budget expansion? I guess I’m not the only one to notice an unending trend of higher government spending. Over the last ten years spending has risen 60%, but what has that gotten us? Did it really improve our lives, or didn’t you notice it? Why do you have to pay higher taxes and fees for that?

The prevailing sentiment among us angry taxpayers is that we should reject all five budget measures to send a strong message to the legislature. I agreed with that until I sat down to read the measures in my voter guide. Let’s look at these one-by-one.

Prop 1A: Changes to State Budget Process.

Remember how the legislature assured us all those tax hikes were ONLY for two years? This makes them last four years. It also performs a bunch of complicated adjustments to the rainy day fund, but the short version is that it expands it. Those complicated adjustments are probably just a ploy to give this ballot initiative a meaningless name like “changes to state budget process” instead of “raising your taxes even more”.

Prop 1B: Education Funding. Payment Plan.

This authorizes payments to schools from the rainy day fund starting in 2011. These payments are essentially repayments of budget cuts schools are getting now.

Prop 1C: Lottery Modernization Act.

This proposition would “modernize” the state lottery with higher jackpots and more advertising. Oh and it would also allow the state to issue bonds against future, expected lottery revenues, but pay no attention to that. That’s just a piddling little nothing provision that doesn’t matter at all.

Prop 1D: Protects Children’s Services Funding.

This protects funding for certain children’s services programs by cutting funding to other children’s services programs. Prop 98 established required spending rules for a program called First 5. This prop would permit the legislature to transfer money away from that to fund other social programs.

Prop 1E: Mental Health Services Funding.

This is similar to 1D except this involves mental health programs instead of children’s social services.

Prop 1F: Elected Officials’ Salaries.

This denies any pay raises to the legislature and any constitutional officers in deficit years.

As you can guess 1F is the outlier here. It’s not part of the legislature’s budget plan. Conservative rage is pounding the table over 1A through 1E and as I mentioned there is a ‘vote it all down’ movement brewing. I planned to take part in that as soon as I heard we would have a special election over the budget. Screw the legislature! I wasn’t going to let them pass the buck to me. Once I actually read these propositions I took a more nuanced view. Here’s what I voted on my mail-in ballot and why.

1A: No! I’m not going to vote to allow these idiot politicians to raise my taxes. The cycle of ever higher taxes needs to break somewhere.

1B: No! No! The school system should learn to tighten their belts just like everyone else. Repaying a budget cut is asinine.

1C: No! No! No! A thousand times NO! Borrowing against future lottery receipts is not reform. It’s just more of the borrow and spend policies that have ruined this state’s finances.

1D: Uhmmm, well, yea. I have always hated the many propositions that tie up California’s spending. We elect a legislature but can’t trust them to plan a budget? If you don’t think your representative is able, capable or trustworthy enough to make decisions on spending, stop voting for them. It’s an idiotic situation. I decided to vote yes because I’m happy to undermine this type of spending. Besides, it’s not a new tax. The legislature wants to shift spending from one program to another. I don’t object to that. It’s the sort of decision that legislators exist to make.

1E: Yes here too; Same logic as with 1D.

1F: Hell yes! I can understand the argument that this is pointless populism, but it won’t cause any harm and yet it will send a resounding ‘screw you’ to our elected officials.

I guess I’ve failed the purity test so there will be no GOP nominations for me. I’ll be happy to see props 1A through 1C fail, and I wouldn’t mind if 1D and 1E fail too. Right now the polls are in my favor but the ‘yes’ ads are starting on TV. I hope their repetition doesn’t hypnotize the population, but I fear it will. Something needs to be done to stop our tax and spend irresponsibility. The failure of these propositions will force the legislature to go back to work on the state budget. Either they will have to accept the blame for raising taxes again, or actually make serious budget cuts.