ConservativeINC

Funny I asked because I just got an email from him, well, one of his groups, the other day that answers this question:

Sen. Tom McClintock on the Propositions

Prop. 91 Transportation Funding Protection: YES! This measure flatly prohibits Sacramento from raiding our highway taxes to paper over their budget deficits. When a watered-down version of Prop. 91 was adopted by the legislature, its sponsors dropped this measure after it qualified. Nevertheless, if you want to genuinely protect our transportation taxes from being raided, Prop 91 is the Real McCoy.

Prop. 92 Guaranteed Funding for Community Colleges: NO! This can best be described as a Prop. 98 for community colleges – guaranteeing them a growing level of funding from the state’s tax revenues regardless of their actual attendance, their performance or the state’s fiscal condition and priorities. If you like straight-jackets, you’ll love Prop. 92.

Prop. 93 Term Limits: NEUTRAL. Current term limits are a maximum of 14 years in the legislature: six in the Assembly and eight in the Senate – which is why you see so much office-hopping. Prop. 93 reduces the maximum to 12 years in the legislature, but allows them to be served in the same house. Since I’ve only served eight years in the Senate, Prop. 93 would give me one final term; if it fails I must retire this year. Because I have a conflict of interest, I’m staying out if it.

Propositions 94-97 Indian Gaming Compacts: YES! These propositions ratify the compacts that allow four tribes to expand their casinos. I’m not a gambler, but it’s none of government’s business how people spend their money. I’m tired of government restrictions on enterprise, and I’m tired of government telling us what we can and can’t do. And our economy desperately needs the new jobs and investment.

This email was sent out from a group called Senator Tom McClinctock’s Citizens for the California Republic.

Quite frankly, I don’t agree with everything the good senator says here. I agree on 91 and 92 for his same reasons. On 93 I am a strong no, which, I think, isn’t his position. I just won’t give any politician any extra terms of incumbency no matter how much I like ‘em. And I think Senator McClintock is one of the best but getting him some extra time in the senate isn’t a good enough reason to allow everyone else the same opportunity.

Propositions 94-97, the Indian gaming ones, have troubled me since I first heard about them. At first I was against them. My reasoning goes a little something like this: we don’t need more slot machines. Then my gut reaction got a little bit of backup when I learned how much money the CA government would be getting from this deal; maybe of few hundred million dollars every year. Sounds like a lot until you realize that California’s state budget is north of $100 billion a year. So, less than one half of one percent.

But then I got to thinking like McClintock thinks. And, it’s true, I don’t like the government telling legal businesses what they can and cannot do. It’s just not right and stands against everything I believe in. But then I got to thinking a little bit deeper. How fair is it to only allow casinos on tribal lands? It’s not.

And let’s face it, the tribes stand to make billions of dollars off of this deal. Instead of having to trek all the way to Vegas to get their dollar slots fix, seniors will only have to go half as far. Now, if the deal allowed anyone to open up a casino then that would be a different story. I would still be against it, but there wouldn’t be all this mental gymnastics going on in my head.

Yeah, sure, we’ll miss the less than one half of one percent these taxes would bring but money is not the problem with California’s government. The problem is its spending habits. If they got that less than one half of one percent they would find a way to spend an extra one percent. So we would still be behind, nothing would change. Plus, we’d have a bunch of one dollar slot addicts on our hands and that is never a good thing. BigT

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