Think Again, Fabian
On Tuesday, I broke down why California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's plan to fund universal health care made for bad policy, but good politics. But now I'm wondering if I need to rethink my position: It's probably bad politics, too.
The reason for my second thoughts is the drubbing that another cigarette tax-hiking measure took this week. Measure 50 would have bumped the cigarette tax in Oregon (a state every bit as "blue" as California) up to just over $2 -- the amount Nunez is recommending for California. The measure failed, 60 percent to 40 percent.
That's because voters were able to see through the policy shortcomings of this approach, thanks to a big-bucks "no" campaign funded by the tobacco industry. And if big tobacco mobilized in Oregon, you can be sure it would mobilize here, too. Just last year, the industry spent $58 million in California defeating Proposition 86, the proposed $2.60-per-pack tax that would have funded emergency-room operations.
So to add to my list of reasons Nunez's plan is flawed, add this big one: It probably wouldn't pass.
With the bait- and -switch Parks is trying to pull on us taxpayers/ homeowners over the trash fee hike/ tax, where we were promised that this would go SPECIFICALLY for cops but now he wants to sweep/ swipe it into the general fund, we'd be foolish to approve any more taxes.
We're promised that our gas surplus tax will be used only for transportation issues like improving roads and for mass transit, then the Assembly swiped that for the State general fund, because they couldn't balance their budget more appropriately. Then we're promised a sizable $250/ yr per household trash fee hike will go to cops only, and Parks wants to swipe that because the city can't balance it's budget either.
With the bait- and -switch games politicians pull based on some loopholes in how the laws were written and promises made to us, we can't trust them UNTIL AND IF these loopholes are closed.