The East Bay Tea Party (EBTP) has announced strong opposition to the November 2012, Proposition 31 ballot initiative. EBTP claims Prop 31 is a flawed initiative that attempts to address the state’s dysfunctional budget process through various changes to the state constitution. The East Bay Tea Party stands for smaller government, less taxes and a return to constitutional principles. This proposition violates those principles and therefore cannot be supported by the East Bay Tea Party.
“This proposition is an assault on personal liberty, property rights and local government control of our communities! We support free markets and equal justice. This proposition uses the UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development 3 E’s (Economy, Equity and Environment) violating those principles.” says Heather Gass, property rights advocate and founder of the East Bay TEA Party.
The title and summary are misleading and do not represent the true nature of this proposition. At first glance, the title “Government for Performance and Accountability” sounds great and can hardly be argued against. The title is meant to deceive the masses into voting for this proposition by appealing to their concern over the corruption and incompetence in California state government. Furthermore, the summary definition leads one to believe that this proposition is only about budget reform and will bring much needed transparency to government while giving Californians value for their tax dollars.
However, upon reading the full text this proposition is laden with deceptive language and the true nature of the proposition is revealed. Although there are others, the EBTP’s main objections to this proposition are:
It amends the California Constitution and creates a “Super” Council that will oversee all levels of govt. Corruption cannot be fixed by adding a new layer of bureaucrats. Who will hold this group accountable?
This bill takes away the 2/3 majority currently needed to pass a state budget.
It calls for the institutionalization of the UN Agenda 21 “3 E’s”
Economy = Private/Public Partnerships and PLAs will replace free markets
Equity = Social and Environmental justice and the redistribution of wealth will be mandatory instead of Equal Justice
Environment = Climate Change, Species, Habitat and false science will be used as an excuse to regulate and control the citizens of California.
The “Super” Council will measure the “Performance and Accountability” of every government entity against the UN Agenda 21 3 E’s. The Council will have the ultimate power to make or stop a local jurisdiction from doing anything based on this proposition.
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
People should vote NO on any additional taxes or bonds. The problem is Government waste and non accountability. Digging our personal self’s deeper in the hole for the government to waste is plain nonsense. Before you vote for a tax or bond give yourself just five minutes and name everything that you already pay taxes on. Also name the things that get taxed multiple times like cars. Look at your pay stub if you are lucky enough to even have a job and see how much the government takes out each check, and finally look at each of your utility bills and see how many taxes you pay every month on those. Then ask yourself, do I already pay a huge amount every day and every week of money that I have already been taxed on?
Think about it, just a gallon of gas that you purchase has more than $1.50 towards taxes. As the gas price goes up, so does the tax. The government gets tax raises every day.
The choices made Nov 6 will determine the state’s course for years. Both Prop 32, 30 levy significant taxes on Californians.
The wounds that Prop 30, 32 are to heal have been self inflicted largely by elected officials in Sacramento who simply do not say no to any influential interest group (lobbyists) be they public employees, business, teachers or other unions or environmental groups.
And now the Sacramento politicians and their lobbyists are using Prop 32, 30, 38 to blackmail us.
Vote! Vote No on Prop 32, 30, 38. Save California for our children.
Yes, the CA Republican Party erred re this issue. The more we learn about Prop 31, the more problems emerge. The CRP should reverse its position and join enlightened T.E.A. Party voters in opposing Prop 31.
When bad behavior goes unpunished, you get more of it. The most harmful “bad behavior” seen in local gov’t is elected officials’ support of unsustainable pension and OPEB benefits. The same thinking behind regional government leads to reduced accountability for elected officials . . . which, in turn, leads to financial bailouts that only exacerbate the problem, screw taxpayers and, ultimately, decimate the economy and accelerate the exodus of money and jobs from the state.
This just-published Congressional paper by Jim DeMint tells us all we need to know about why Californians must defeat Prop 31 . . . here’s an excerpt:
“Amidst multiple large-scale municipal bankruptcies in California, the Golden State now has an initiative, Proposition 31, on the ballot this November which could shift any potential state-level burdens from future municipal bankruptcies onto taxpayers in other localities. Widely publicized as a much needed budget process reform initiative, the devil is in the details. Prop. 31 would set up an “optional” revenue sharing plan for local governments, but with localities given the choice between sharing a portion of their state funds or forfeiting them entirely, the revenue sharing plan may as well be considered mandatory. Under such a system, regional boards made up of unelected officials would determine how to use the shared revenues – be that for largescale investment projects, to redistribute educational funds, or to bail out troubled local governments and pension systems . . . By essentially taxing fiscally prudent jurisdictions and redistributing their money to fiscally imprudent ones, it appears California is preparing to pass the buck before even more of its municipalities go bankrupt.”
READ. IT. ALL.
http://www.jec.senate.gov/republicans/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=6bdeeee9-4560-4904-bb2e-73cea6de06ab
VOTE NO on 31!
Good article and way to go Heather and East Bay Tea Party in actually reading the wording of the propostion! Maybe if the Republican Party had taken the time to read it, they would have recommended a NO vote as well.
I heard Stanley Kurtz speak about this in person in St. Louis at the recent national Eagle Forum conference. He strongly believes Prop 31 goes along with Obama’s agenda to force people in the suburbs to pay for the cities.