• 2006 CFT Legislative Report (PDF)
• Governor's STRS/PERS "reform" a bad idea
• Fixing the health care crisis after Prop 72
• What CFT members can do about the state budget crisis
• California Budget Project
• California Tax Reform Association
• Contact your state Senator
• Contact your state Assemblymember

Defeat Prop 88

• Campaign Toolkit: Materials and links

Prop 88, on the face of it, should be a no-brainer for educators.  Its language says that it would impose a $50 tax on each real property parcel in the state to pay for K-12 programs, including school safety, textbooks, and extending class-size reduction beyond K-3.  It would bring in several billion dollars for public education.  Sounds great, you say.  It seems egalitarian and supports education.

But Prop 88 hits poor people for the same chunk of money as the well-to-do.  This is not an equal levy.  If you’re Bill Gates, $50 is pocket change.  If you’re a Wal-Mart “associate” and you have a mortgage to pay, $50 could mean having to choose between medicine and shoes this month. 

Another difficulty with Prop 88 is that it would raise false expectations.  Remember the lottery? Ever since that ballot initiative passed, much of the public wonders why we complain about the public schools still being under funded.  Yet, in reality, the lottery never brings in more than 2% of the state’s public education budget, and in many years the total is closer to 1%. 

Prop 88 would impose a statewide property tax, the first since Prop 13.  But it would raise fewer funds than the lottery does for schools.  We need to reform Prop 13; but if we do, it should be a significant state budget reform that brings in substantial monies to schools and other necessary programs.  Prop 88 would make it harder to enact real budget reform.

Prop 88 would award its facility grants to fewer than one in a hundred schools, targeting schools without state bond monies and with standardized test scores in the top half.  Its backers’ intent is to quietly favor charter schools.

The stated goal of Prop 88 is laudable; the mechanism is faulty. Vote NO on Prop 88.

• "Education groups say school tax plan not nearly enough," San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006
• "Unlikely partnerships battle Prop 88," Contra Costa Times, October 2, 2006
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