| By the www.meriteducation.com website. |
This ballot initative is knows as Proposition 29 and is scheduled for vote in the June 2012 election. This page was updated on March 31, 2012.
Folks, they’re At It Again!!!!!
Sacramento Bee-hind January 24,
2011 featured a story about the “possible” upcoming special election,
scheduled for June 2011. We quote the following:
“A second
initiative would raise the tobacco tax by $1 a pack to fund cancer research and
smoking prevention programs.
That measure, which would raise an estimated $500 million annually,
is backed by the American Cancer Society, the American
Lung Association, the American Heart Association and
former Democratic Senate President Pro
Tem Don Perata,
a cancer survivor.”
The text of the ballot measure states (paraphrase), it will create a nine member commission which will oversee the distribution of funds. The authors of this initiative are banking on receiving a $500 million dollar per year being generated by the taxes on tobacco products. A portion of the money raised will be approximately $32 million dollars in sales taxes which will go to the general fund.
Our opposition to this is based upon the following.
One,
this will create another Commission. We
need LESS government, not more! There are over five hundred Commissions and
State Agencies in California. The compensation of Commissioners begins at
$136,000 per year. Add to that figure Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)
contributions, medical/dental and vision care.
Oh, do not forget, these commissioners are “Big Shots,” and are
issued State of California credit cards. Can you say “Two martini lunches”
at Posey’s at 11th and O Street?
That is right; Posey’s is now Mexican eatery. Maybe they will go to The
Broiler on K Street. Of
course, they need State vehicles so they can get around and no doubt a cell
phone and other electronic gadgets (that we just cannot seem to live or do
without). Of course, a Commission needs offices, meeting rooms and support staff
(Office Assistants, accountants, computer
techs) and just plain old Civil Service paper/pencil pushers; it goes on and on.
A State bureaucracy, any State bureaucracy is like heroin addict, they need a
fix and they will do anything to get that money fix….lie….cheat.
Why? These people they need a money fix, and they need it NOW.
Now,
to the defense of the newly be-knighted bureaucrats, the funding initially will
be accomplished with the money people pay in taxes. Remember folks the old
“Fairy Tale” the goose that laid the golden egg?
The King thought since the goose laid golden eggs the inside “must”
be gold. The King killed the goose
and guess what, the entrails of the goose was just plain old goose innards.
Well, the taxpayer goose, someday, will slow down in producing its
treasures…what happens to the bureaucrats? What happens when the money
disappears? Will this Commission,
with a job well done, simply disappear? Don’t bet your house payment on that
happening with this commission or any of the 500 other boards and commissions
that exist in the State of California.
Remember
Prop 10 (The Meat-head Proposition), the “anti-smoking” tax pushed by Rob
Reiner and his “progressive” buddies? When the money started drying up,
guess what? Then Assemblyman
Lloyd G. Connelly
(Connelly never saw a tax he did not like) tapped money from the General Fund to make up the difference.
I remember the Press Conference when Connelly said, “Well, we are
obligated to continue funding First 5 even when the initial source of funding
drops.” They use money extorted
from users of tobacco, theoretically to get people to stop using tobacco, and
when their goal is reached (fewer tobacco users), these people (First 5
Commission), extort money from the General Fund.
The problem with these types of Commissions is their budget process is
not considered “discretionary spending” it is labeled “Mandatory”.
Translation, they get a seat at the budget table, they do not have to wait
outside and after the “Big Boys” are finished and pick up scraps off the
floor. This insanity needs to stop!
The
goals of this ballot measure are laudable; cancer research.
Closely examine the
intentions of the “sponsors/supporters” of this measure; American Cancer
Society, American Lung Association and the American Heart Association.
Times are tough. I am sure with the malaise of the economy, donations are
way down. In fact, all charity's donations have been down for the past
three years. Unlike the people at your local house of worship, the groups above
have a few more resources than a smaller charity. The groups enumerated above
get to work, so they jinn
up a ballot measure that ensures they get more money being given to their cause.
Folks,
members of our group really have no axe to grind…none of us are tobacco users.
It would be easy to state, “Yea, stick it to the smokers…they suck…if they
didn’t they couldn’t smoke.” The real issue is this: this ballot measure
creates another State Commission, with the accompanying expenses that a
Commission entails. After the bureaucrats get done taking their “piece of the
action,” pennies on the dollar will actually go to cancer research.
We need less government-not more.
The following was accurate as of August, 2011: As of
this writing, the ballot number has not been determined. The Attorney General
named the ballot measure “California
Cancer Research Act” on December 17, 2010.
Sutter Lies urges a NO vote.