Confused? So was I, until I spent some time reading information about these. My thoughts:
30: Gov. Brown and a number of us want more revenue for the state. California's revenue has dropped 15 percent from its peak while our population grows. We are overly dependent on taxes that fluctuate too much with the economy and we are now 47th in educational spending. If we want better government, we must pay. You don't get what you don't pay for. Vote yes.
31: Not well explained and will add tens of millions in costs for no apparent reason. Just another attempt to legislate good spending practices by fiat. If you want a good legislature, pay for one. If you continue to pay little or nothing to people who serve in state legislature—well, there is no free lunch. Vote no.
32: A proposition to cripple unions paid for by corporations pretending to be a balanced limitation on both. Nonsense. Corporations don't take their political money from employees; they rip off shareholders like me instead. Prevent the neo-fascists who control most corporations from spending what should be my dividend money supporting reactionary causes and we can talk—until then, no thanks. Vote No.
33: George Joseph and Mercury Insurance Co. spending big bucks to re-write insurance law—again. No thanks. Vote no.
34: The death penalty. Supported by right-wingers who hate lawyers but naively believe that death sentences are always right. $4 billion spend to execute a handful of people and over $100 million a year wasted. Residents of Death Row are much more likely to die a natural death than to be executed. But it is not true that life insurance companies are selling policies there—yet. Vote yes to repeal the death penalty.
35: Higher penalties for human trafficking opposed by some crazies. Vote yes.
36: The three strikes law. Life in prison for stealing a slice of pizza. Time for a repeal of this wasteful and expensive nonsense. Vote yes.
37: Require genetically modified food to be labelled. Large costs. And lots of litigation. Lots of stuff is genetically engineered. There is no scientific basis to treat such food differently and we will have endless disputes over what is covered and what is not. Corn is genetically modified—as is wheat. This will be like Proposition 65—everything will have a label. Vote no.
38: A close call. Raises more money than 30 and dedicates the money clearly to schools. All good. But raises income taxes on very low earners and raises taxes just a bit too much. Vote no.
39: We are a bunch of fools letting corporations pick different formulas to calculate their share of California taxes. Surprise! They manipulate the formulas. This proposition will base taxes on percentage of sales in California—removing the incentive to move jobs outside the state. Vote yes.
40: Put on the ballot by people opposed to the neutral redistricting of legislative districts. Then they argued—gee, the proposition we put on the ballot is not needed so no "yes" vote is needed. Not true. Unless the proposition passes, redistricting for the state senate goes back to the courts. Vote yes.
Tom Long
