Dear All;
Last Sunday the SF Examiner had an op-ed which basically said that the budget impasse was all the fault of the 2/3's rule on passing new taxes. This rule was originally introduced back in 1933 when the concerns were about surprise surprise property taxes and sales taxes. Of course 75 years later we don't have those concerns anymore - do we?
Any way the SF Examiner published my pro - 2/3's rule LTE with affiliation with my own little twist on the 2/3's rule..
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
"Let the people decide where the money’s spent"
The two-thirds approval rule on new taxes was instituted during the Depression in 1933 but is now being politically twisted into budget obstructionism that could ultimately provoke its repeal.
The 1965 state budget was $4 billion. Today, it is $104 billion after cuts from the veto threatened $143 billion proposal. Imagine the obscenely swollen budget without a two-thirds requirement.
Removing the two-thirds rule would subject wage earners to the dictatorial tyranny of the 50 percent majority plus one. Then piratical Sacramento would continually raid our wallets and our hard-earned incomes would be redistributed for the “good of others” — to politically connected special-interest groups and unionized “public servants.”
For real tax reform, stop using the two-thirds majority to pass a budget in the Legislature. Instead, send the budget to the public for a two-thirds approval by all registered voters.
– Ron Getty, Libertarian Party official, San Francisco