PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

SUMMARY OF PROPOSITIONS
California Presidential Primary Election
February 5, 2008

Proposition 91 - Transportation Funds. This initiative constitutional amendment would strengthen Proposition 42 by eliminating the State's ability to "suspend" the requirement that gasoline sales tax revenues must be used for transportation projects. Sales taxes on gasoline (and on gasoline excise taxes) would be dedicated to transportation [projects/needs].

Proposition 92 - Community Colleges. Funds. Governance. Fees. This initiative constitutional amendment and statute would permanently reduce community college tuition, increase taxpayer subsidies, and add yet another unwarranted, incomprehensible funding mandate to the California Constitution. In effect, future legislators would be unable to prioritize spending or respond to future needs without raising taxes.

Proposition 93 - Limits on Legislators' Terms in Office. This initiative constitutional amendment can confuse voters. It pretends to reduce Legislative terms [from 14 to 12 years], but it would extend term limits for more than 80% of incumbent legislators-allowing current leadership to stay in power for up to 12 years.

Proposition 93 provides a transition period to allow current members to serve a total of 12 consecutive years in the house in which they are currently serving, regardless of any prior service in another house. Therefore, if a Legislator has served 6 years in the Assembly and is currently serving in the Senate, that person could serve for 12 years in the Senate, for a total of 18 years in the Legislature.

As a practical matter, if Proposition 93 passes, current members of the Assembly would be able to stay in office six years longer than they are allowed by current term limits, and current members of the Senate would be able to stay in office four years longer than they can under the current rules.

An additional consideration: Under the current term-limit provisions, an Assembly member can serve 3 terms, or 6 years, and a Senator can serve 2 terms, or 8 years, for a total of 14 years, if an Assembly member is subsequently elected to the Senate or vice versa. Since there are twice as many Assembly seats (80) as Senate seats (40), at the most, only half of the Assembly members could be elected to the Senate after their 6-year term. This means that, on average, half of the Assembly members would only serve a term of 6 years TOTAL, not 14 years. Although there are more opportunities to move from the Senate to the Assembly, ordinarily, (1) a Legislator starts his or her service in the Assembly before moving to the Senate, (2) has already "termed out" in the Assembly, and (3) would not be able to move back to the Assembly. Actually, Proposition 93 would give current members MORE time to serve than under the current term-limits provision-in the same or both houses of the Legislature, as described above.

Propositions 94-97 - Referenda on Amendment to Indian Gaming Compact. These four gaming compacts would alter various terms of existing compacts in complex ways, very substantially increasing state revenues (although the precise increase is disputed, it could be as high as 25% of gaming revenues). The compacts do not contain the "card check" union-organizing tool that unions have demanded. The compacts are opposed by labor unions, racetracks and card clubs, and by two Indian tribes whose own compacts provide for unlimited expansion of gambling. According to State Senator Tom McClintock, "The Indian Gaming Agreements...are urgently needed to...generate thousands of new jobs for Californians, and help reduce California's gaping deficit. By relieving pressure on the budget, these measures will help our fight against tax increases."