Taxable Talk

The last of the five of the Governator’s infrastructure initiatives deals with disaster preparedness and levee repairs. This measure would allow the issuance of $4.09 billion in bonds, with payback costing about $266 million per year for 30 years.

Most Californians are unaware of the huge levee system in the Central Valley. The levees are quite fragile and old; one article about the system can be found here. The Weather Channel also recently had a special on the fragile nature of the system.

As much as I hate bond measures, this is one that is vital for California. The failure of the levee system could endanger drinking water throughout the state and the huge farm crops from the Central Valley.

The fourth of five of the Governator’s infrastructure initiatives is a school funding bond act. If approved, $10.416 billion of bonds would be issued, costing around $680 million a year for 30 years to payoff. Yikes!

Again, the goal of the act is laudable: repair and upgrade of old schools, increasing classrooms where needed due to growth, and seismic retrofitting. The question that I have is could this be done without the issuance of a huge new bond measure? Unfortunately, in California’s political climate, the answer is likely no.

Proposition 1C is the third of five of the Governator’s infrastructure bills on the November ballot. Titled “Housing and Emergency Trust Fund Act of 2006”, it’s yet another monstrous bond act. This measure would allow the issuance of $2.6 billion of bonds, used for housing for battered women, low-income seniors, and similar uses.

While the goals of the initiative are laudable, this bond would cost $204 million a year for the next 30 years (for repayment). As Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) notes, “[it] grows bureaucracy with almost $3 billion in borrowed money, burdening everyone with debt to benefi t a small number of people selected by government, including financially eligible illegal immigrants.”