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Making an informed vote takes research
By Moryt Milo
With the California primary only two weeks away, it's time to review my sample ballot. To be honest, I hate looking through that thing. It always reminds me of the homework I never wanted to do in school.
I do feel that it's important to vote; otherwise I will have no right to complain if the outcome isn't to my liking. The problem is that our sample ballot and voter pamphlet are so unfriendly. The information presented never sounds like English. Add the current political choices, which don't get me very excited, mix in the 20 propositions we have to vote on this year, and I just want to throw the whole thing into the recycling bin.
Of course I won't. I want my say. I just wish that figuring it out wasn't so complicated. So I started reading through all the propositions and something very basic occurred to me. I wasn't sure I really understood what a bond measure was. I asked a couple of friends and they were also a bit confused.
I did know that a bond was a way to raise money to accomplish a specific goal, but in all the listed propositions nowhere did it say where the money would come from. Since these measures are talking about billions of dollars over a long period of time, in some case 25 years, I was motivated to investigate.
I logged onto the website listed on the pamphlet (www.sccvote.org) and located the explanations of the propositions. There I discovered something very interesting. Now I don't know if this is a ballot printing issue or some sort of political maneuvering, but when I looked up state propositions 12, 13 and 14 (three major bond measures) online, it very clearly stated that funding would come out of the state's general fund.
I then realized that the state general fund is basically made up of contributions from my tax pocket, your tax pocket and corporate tax pockets, which in today's booming economy are rolling in. But what about 25 years from now? Will our economy still be cruising in overdrive? And what about the $3 billion surplus we are supposed to have next year? Why can't we use a chunk of that, instead of props 12, 13 and 14?
So here's where I'm torn. These bonds are definitely needed and the causes are right up my alley (environmental protection and California public libraries), but will the money be spent as promised and will the money be available to pay the bonds back over the next 25 years? I'm a bit leery because I've never had much confidence in the way our state government manages its dollars. But I want better libraries and a protected environment. Still I wonder, "What happened to all money that was suppose to flow into the public schools from the California state lottery?"
Being an East Coast transplant, I grew up in a region with a completely different educational funding philosophy. Each city was responsible for taxing itself to provide for its local schools. The wealthier the city, the higher the school taxes. I'm not claiming that's fair, only making a point. When cities earmark their own funds for specific needs it usually happens and people can see where it's going. When state governments throw all their funds into one giant pool who knows where it goes.
These measures leave cause for concern. Yet there is no question in my mind that changes must be made. Prop. 26 wants to do away with the two-thirds majority vote and replace it with a simple majority that decides the fate of local schools. But it also wants to fiddle with the 1 percent property tax limits. I'm pro-school but housing costs in this Valley are so unrealistic that this type of tampering makes me nervous.
And then there's Proposition 21. Nowhere in the pamphlet does it talk about changing the age requirements for juvenile offenders. This measure wants to bring the adult age for trials involving murder and sex offenses down to age 14. I have no argument with proper punishment for heinous crimes; I just don't think we, the voters, are being given all the necessary information to make intelligent, informed choices.
Just when I was going to slam the Registrar of Voters for not presenting the full story, I opened my mailbox to find a very thick voter information and supplemental guide. Now honestly, who's going to read all that?
But I urge you to become informed. Make your choices based on the facts. Don't rely on biased commercials or tidbits of information. You are entitled to know what you're voting, for because on election day your vote will matter.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
