California November 2012 Propositions
We have eleven statewide propositions on this ballot.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th.
You can also vote before then at Early Voting locations.
Check your sample ballot, or ask your county's Registrar of Voters
to find out where.
For instance, in Alameda County you can vote at the
Registrar's office in downtown Oakland,
among other places.
If you are not registered to vote, you can fix that by filling out a
simple form on the Secretary of State's web site.
No paper required!
Register by October 22nd to vote in this election.
[30]
[38]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
[39]
[40]
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Prop. 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education
Prop. 38: Tax to Fund Education and Early Childhood Programs
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Props. 30 and 38 are paired - if they both pass, only the one with
more Yes votes goes into effect.
30 would raise state income tax on the $250,000-and-up bracket
for seven years, and raise sales tax by ¼ cent for four years.
The total extra revenue would be about $6 billion per year.
38 would raise income tax on nearly everyone, to varying degrees,
by adding a whole buch of new tax brackets.
It would raise around $10 billion more per year.
Both measures would send the extra money to schools.
It's that last part that I don't like.
Schools are great.
Everyone loves schools.
But a statewide ballot is not the right way to manage school
budget allocations.
Raising taxes would be great.
My own preferred method would be the long talked about
split-roll modification to Proposition 13.
But tying the tax increase to specific spending decisions
and locking them in for years is a terrible idea.
I recommend NO on both measures.
That said, the harsh reality is that if Prop. 30 fails, there
will be automatic cuts to the state budget.
Big ones.
If you want to avoid that, 30 is the one to vote for.
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Prop. 31: State Budget
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This includes a grab-bag of changes to the state budget process.
Maybe it would have been a good idea a couple years ago, when
the budget process was broken and we got months-long deadlocks
every year.
But we fixed that with 2010's Prop. 25.
Now the budget process works pretty well.
We don't need this.
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Prop. 32: Political Contributions by Payroll Deduction
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This is aimed squarely at unions.
It's the next step in the process started by the Citizens United
decision.
That allowed unlimited political contributions by both corporations
and unions; now they want to make it corporations only.
This is funded by the out-of-state billionaire douchebag Koch brothers.
Vote no.
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Prop. 33: Auto Insurance Based on Driver's History
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This is a slightly-changed re-run of 2010's Prop. 17, the one
where Mercury Insurance tried to buy their own state law.
We rejected that one.
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Prop. 34: Death Penalty
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Abolishes the death penalty in California.
Not only is this the moral thing to do, but it will save us
$130 million per year.
YES.
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Prop. 35: Human Trafficking
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On the surface this sounds like a good idea but if you look at
the details it's very bad.
It would expand the definition of human trafficking to
a ridiculous degree, to the point that a massage therapist's
roommate's children could be charged as pimps.
I am going to reluctantly vote no.
However I expect it will pass, since the arguments against
are too subtle.
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Prop. 36: Three Strikes
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Another proposed revision to the Three Strikes law.
As the law is currently written, the first two strikes
have to be serious or violent felonies but the third
strike can be any felony.
This would change it so that the third strike has to
be a serious or violent felony too.
This is obviously the way the law should have been written
in the first place, so yes.
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Prop. 37: Labeling Genetically Engineered Foods
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I don't have a problem with labeling.
In fact I very much like
labeling.
The objections to this one sound like bunk.
Vote yes.
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Prop. 39: Taxes on Multi-State Businesses
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Currently multi-state businesses can choose one of two methods
to determine their California taxable income.
These are called the "three-factor method" and the "single sales
factor method".
This proposition would eliminate the "three-factor method" and
require use the "single sales factor method" only.
Normally I would say that arcane accounting details like this
do not belong on the ballot, but this will both simplify the
tax code and increase revenue by about $1 billion per year.
So, sure.
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Prop. 40: Redistricting
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Approve or reject new State Senate districts drawn by the
Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The Commission was created by 2008's Prop. 11.
I was against that, but it turned out more or less ok, so I'll
vote Yes on their proposed districts.
Note that the people who put Prop. 40 on the ballot, who
wanted you to vote No and reject the new districts, have
shut down their campaign.
Secretary of State's voter information page.
Another propositions rating page.
My recommendations for the
June 2012,
November 2010,
June 2010,
2008,
2006,
2005, and
2004
propositions.
Back to Jef's page.