The Props: Prop A NO -- Public Safety, Emergency Response and Crime Prevention

The use of a regressive 1/2 cent rise in the sales tax negates the desirability of a measure that unexpectedly seeks to provide some funds for programs to prevent crimes, rather than just to apprehend perpetrators. But many of these dollars are required to meet unfunded federal mandates in the war on terror. Let the grandstanders in the beltway come up with ways to pay for these measures, instead of forcing local governments to squeeze a few more pennies out of the poor. NO.