Municipalities, counties and special districts providing such services as schools, libraries, water, sanitation, police and fire protection, etc., are funded by dedicated revenue streams from sales and property taxes, vehicle license fees, etc. Not so dedicated, as it turns out, though, since over the past dozen years Sacramento has been able to raid these funds to the tune of $40 billion. Too often left short of dollars for essential services, the local entities struck back by sponsoring the petition drive that secured Prop. 65 a place on the ballot.
The measure would force the state to give back to local governments $2.9 billion that it has taken just during the last two years. The loss of these funds has seriously weakened essential city and county services and kept local governments in a constant state of uncertainty and crisis. Giving the money back to the cities and counties sounds like a good idea, until you consider the fact that the practical effect would be to throw the state into financial chaos.
In addition, 65 includes no workable mechanism to deal with real fiscal emergencies, such as a major earthquake, instead requiring the calling of a state-wide special election at which an impossible-to-meet (and anti-democractic) two-thirds minimum number of votes would be needed to pass an override.
Prop 65 is a very bad solution to a very real problem. 1A is a weaker version of the same idea, with fewer guarantees to local authorities, cooked up when the Governator and the Ledge freaked out over the prospect of the passage of 65. NO and NO.
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