Correct. The Restoration Authority has been around since 2008, as we stated on the LPSF website's article "San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority - Nickel and Diming you to the Poor House,"
http://www.lpsf.org/state-national-corner/946-san-francisco-bay-restoration-authority.html
From the article:
"The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority was created by
the California legislature in
2008 to appropriate funds from taxpayers through bonds,
property-related fees, and other financing vehicles. Since 2008, the
Authority has been “discussing” how best to raise these funds, missing a
targeted date for a regional ballot measure in 2014, and aiming for another
regional ballot measure in 2016."
In other words, while the Restoration Authority was merely "discussing" how to appropriate funds, nobody cared. However, AB 746 authored by Phil Ting and approved by Governor Brown September 2015 enabled the Authority to tax and spend. Therein lies the problem. Measure AA is not "unprecedented" because it is a regional tax. It is unprecedented because a body of unelected bureaucrats can now tax and spend.
So, again, the issue is not whether we must keep the Bay healthy and clean, of course we do. The issue is how we do this, via what agency, and how far removed from voters will decisions be made.
The issue is to what extent will our elected representatives abdicate their constitutional responsibilities by transferring power from their own hands into the hands of unelected central planners. And to what extent will voters acquiesce.
Marcy
www.lpsf.org