Copied below (and attached as an MS Word document) is the revision I wrote of an argument against Prop. A, borrowing both from Aubrey's version and from the arguments he'd attached to his (written by anti-Plan Bay Area folks??). The Elections Dept. website lists it as Proposition A, not AA, so that's what I called it in the text.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Proposition A is a proposal by the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SFBRA) that will be on the June 2016 ballots of nine Bay Area counties.
This measure authorizes not only higher property taxes, but also more public debt without limitation!
This measure is yet another attempt to extract more money from the taxpayers using a noble purpose as bait (“Clean up the bay, woo-hoo!”)
But what kinds of things would actually be funded?
“Shoreline cleanup and trash removal” (section 3A1) – Organizations and individuals already do this voluntarily without hitting up the taxpayers. If incentives are needed to encourage further voluntary clean-up efforts, let’s allow groups that organize these efforts to have signs posted recognizing their service, as is done with highway clean-up in some places.
“Provide interpretive materials and special outreach events about pollution prevention” (Section A46) – Sounds like a “feel-good” waste of money. How much pollution will “interpretive materials” and “outreach events” really prevent?
Regionalism is promoted as an efficient way of “getting things done”. But the price to be paid for cutting corners in this manner is loss of democracy. Voters will have no power to select or to control SFBRA’s appointed board members, who would have the kind of money management authority traditionally reserved for elected leaders.
Investing the SFBRA with powers not only to tax and spend but to incur debt which may burden the next generation, sets a troubling precedent. What will keep other governmental entities in the growing alphabet soup of agencies from acquiring similarly unaccountable powers?
Communities around the San Francisco Bay can continue to make improvements to the bay’s shoreline, wetlands, water quality, and other important assets, without the rash move of writing a blank check to a body that is not answerable to voters.
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
www.LPSF.org
No On AA (Parcel Tax)-2016 (53 KB)