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ALPERN AT LARGE - I’ve got no problem raising taxes—and have helped push them for transportation. I’ve also got no problem building, densifying, and and doing what it takes to build L.A.’s local and regional economy—and did so for approximately twenty years with the Mar Vista Community Council.
Yet we’re being used, abused, and gaslighted…and with yet ANOTHER series of elections coming up this November, and with yet ANOTHER possibility of defending ourselves, our families, and our collective sanity from the powers that be, we have to ask ourselves why we keep voting in the same.
Enter California State Proposition 5, which is supposed to “make it easier for local governments to fund affordable housing, infrastructure projects”. It actually should be promoted as “THE PROPOSITION THAT WOULD THRASH PROPOSITION 13 AND LOWER OUR ABILITY TO AVOID IMPULSE TAX AND BOND HIKES”.
Why did Proposition 13 pass? Why am I calling for an end to Proposition 5, which officially lowers the voting threshold from 66.7% to 55% for voter passage of bond measures—in other words, borrow money and pay back the interest…when, now, and how?
Two key reasons:
1) Those in the Legislature (of COURSE it’s from the Legislature, and not from the People!) who voted to put this on the ballot last fall originally wanted to include the threshold of 55% for taxes…so that’s their ultimate ploy.
2) When it becomes impossible or unruly to pay back the interest on new bonds, and all bonds, how will they be paid for…new taxes!
In other words, the Sacramento Legislature ultimately wants to wiggle and waggle, and wrinkle and wrangle, us into paying more and more and more taxes. Period.
Any other cute political talking point or spin-doctoring just goes to show us all that the People knew what they were doing when they voted YES to Proposition 13 back in 1978…
…because all the sneaky, ill-gotten efforts to go around Proposition 13 proves that the People were correct back then and are correct now.
I need to emphasize it’s LABOR DAY, and that I am NOT some rigid libertarian who is against all government spending. I very much do care about the workers—be they my nurses, front office staff, and patients—and I will never stop fighting for the middle class of my roots, and which is why I don’t do “Dermatology for the Stars and Rich”.
I’ve openly and enthusiastically helped raise our taxes when it comes to transportation, but there are ten questions related to “Alpern’s Law of Taxes”—not really my law, but I like to word it as follows:
IT’S NOT THE AMOUNT OF TAXES THAT PLEASE OR INFURIATE VOTERS AND TAXPAYERS, BUT RATHER THE PERCEPTION OF HOW THOSE TAXES ARE BEING SPENT.
Ten questions related to bonding ourselves and taxing ourselves ever higher—because lowering the threshold to bonds (and, ultimately, taxes) can lead to many impulsive votes that we may soon regret.
For example, the California High-Speed Rail Act passed with only 53% of the vote, and many of us only soon thereafter realized it was a bait-and-switch, and that it’s cost us billions that could have been better spent on local and regional rail projects that were more efficient cost-effective.
So…those ten questions:
1) We now have more retired state workers than actively-working state workers (ditto for L.A. City and County workers), and many do not live in California…because it’s too expensive. So they take their/our pension money elsewhere. Will any of our new bonds and taxes go to pay for projects and operational costs that will help us…or them?
2) Ditto for education taxes and bonds—with our overall K-12 population shrinking, is paying more in bonds and taxes for K-12 shrewd, or will it just pay for the welfare and early retirement (59-62, on average) of K-12 teachers?
3) Public sector employees and retirees, on average, have much better, comprehensive, and choice-granted health plans than the average private sector worker…do more bonds and taxes pay for OUR health care?
4) On a related note to 3), the Legislature just granted free health benefits for illegal (undocumented, whatever) immigrants—en route to voting rights, more likely than not. Why should we have to pay for them with taxes or bonds when WE don’t have enough for OUR health care needs?
5) The cities and the counties and the state are now fighting over the homeless funds that have encouraged all sorts of new cottage industries to “house the homeless”. Is that money being spent well, or is actually ENCOURAGING more homelessness, and INCREASING the cost of housing for us all (especially hard on the middle class).
6) Our very-left-leaning Legislature is fighting, or at least vigorously resisting, dams and a water system to bring us all cheaper water access and related utility bills—with the understanding that water infrastructure is vital for us all, is it being spent well enough to raise our taxes and bonds, and make it easier to do so?
7) Multiple schemes to be more “eco-friendly” in our state have come into huge reality-based obstacles—limitations to solar power and infrastructure (and let’s not get started on wind), limitations and embarrassing outcomes on recycling initiatives (not all, though), and the need to import expensive fossil-fuel energy from other states…and we should have more taxes and bonds to ultimately jack up our utility bills?
8) Have you noticed that the spending and subsidization of small businesses, and the allowance of crime that forces our local restaurants and supermarkets out of business has HURT employment opportunities? And we want them to pay more, and therefore pass on the costs to us, the consumers?
9) As we jack up the minimum wage—because the Legislature is demanding businesses pay more to their workers for the inflation the Legislature caused—have we, will we, shall we, or CAN WE pay attention to the drastic drop in new jobs, good jobs, career-jobs, etc., or do we just…
…get used to Door Dash, preparing our own foods, bagging our own groceries, checking in our own groceries, shopping for everything on Amazon…instead of what we used to do in the world outside of our homes and provide jobs for store clerks, waiters, cooks, and small businesses (you know—middle class jobs!).
10) Those in Sacramento do NOT feel the impact of their taxes and bond measures—their health care and pensions are untouchable and inviolate—and if they want to bail out of the state for which they’ve made unlivable, do we really want to pay their way with taxes and bonds, poorly and impulsively thought out, that we should vote in?
Spending is easy and quick, but judgment and wisdom are things that usually require quite a bit of time. We don’t DO things slowly and carefully…but perhaps we should.
Until then, the two-thirds threshold should be maintained on bond measures, on taxes, and for just about anything else that Sacramento or more local governments demand as they put their grubby hands in front of our face and demand more (and if we say no, then we’re cruel, racist, heartless, fascist, entitled monsters).
So it’s YES to Labor, and NO to Proposition 5. Proposition 5 is anything BUT something that helps you or I, or Jane or Joe Worker, and we deserve better as we work harder, more hours and days and jobs per week…and yet be told we’re STILL not paying enough.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
