AGENDA 21 RADIO

California voters passed 4 uncontested bond measures and then trounced Proposition 70 as punishment for Republican “triangulators” that extended climate change taxes for another decade.

Four propositions had virtually no opposition and passed easily including:

Proposition 68 that authorized the state to borrow $4.1 billion to invest in parks, wildlands and water systems in poorer communities passed with 56 percent support;
Proposition 69 that required revenue from Gov. Brown’s very unpopular gas tax increase to restricted to only being spent on fixing roads got 80.4 percent support;
Proposition 71 that made a technical fix that ballot measures must not be implemented until all votes are counted and results certified got 73.6 percent support; and
Proposition 72 provided a property tax exemption for homeowners that install rainwater capture systems starting in 2019 got an election high 83.3 percent support.

But voters demonstrated their anger against the 8 Republican legislators that cynically provided the two-thirds majority to extend Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s AB-32 legislation to restrict the growth of so-called greenhouse gasses (GHG) through 2020 by requiring businesses and utilities to cut CO2 emissions or buy state auction credits.

AB-32’s has been generating about $1 billion a year from GHG auctions that has allowed the Sacramento Democrat-majority to spend: “1) 25 percent for the state’s high-speed rail project, (2) 20 percent for affordable housing and sustainable communities grants (with at least half of this amount for affordable housing), (3) 10 percent for intercity rail capital projects, and (4) 5 percent for low carbon transit operations. The remaining 40 percent is available for annual appropriation by the Legislature.”

But last summer with the program running down to a 2020 expiration, not all Democrats were willing to extend the tax for a decade and risk suffering the rath of voters in 2018.

Despite California Republican Party promises to oppose all Democrat tax increases, Gov. Brown cut what the LA Times called a ‘Grand Bargain’ by recruiting Republican Assembly Leader and adamant “Never-Trumper” Chad Mayes to convince another 7 Republican legislators to “triangulate” away from their stated anti-tax promise to pass the extension.

The Orange County Register called Mayes and his Republican fellow triangulators “duplicitous snollygosters.” The Register claimed that the GOP embers’ real motivation was: “big ticket campaign contributions and independent expenditures showered upon them by their wealthy corporate benefactors, who wanted this pork-laden bill because they were able to stack it with things like tax credits for utility companies.”

Mayes claimed that the Grand Bargain forced Gov. Brown to support putting Proposition 70 on the June ballot that would require the Legislature starting in 2024 to get a two-thirds vote starting in 2024 to set cap and trade spending priorities.

But Californians are keenly aware that the average cost of unleaded gasoline in California over the last eleven months has spiked from about $2.60 a gallon back up to about $3.75 a gallon, according to the Gas Buddy blog.

With polls showing that voters intend to ‘Repeal of the Gas Tax’ in November, 63.6 percent voters rejected Proposition 70.