Proposition 83 is an interesting expression of how public sentiment and hundreds of years of legal principles can butt heads. The rule of law generally holds that if you were to behave in a manner that is explicitly outlawed, you are subject to the punishments proscribed at the time of that behavior. If you violate the speed limit, you are subject to fines as described in the various traffic laws. If you steal somebody’s television, you are subject to certain maximum or minimum jail sentences as proscribed in the criminal statutes. Proposition 83 seeks to retroactively lay a series of punishments onto a subspecies of criminal: sex offenders.
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No, not that Bond; I’m talking about certificates of debt. Every election cycle, the shortcomings of the state budget are dangled in front of Californians. The state legislature, as a body, cannot bring itself to bring in revenue at the rates necessary to fund the projects they want, and the executive branch cannot bring itself to manage the funds it is allocated properly, so we the people have the opportunity to force their hand.

I’m generally disinclined to vote for bonds, they are the governmental equivalent of credit card debt. This year, we get Propositions 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, and 84 to consider. If they pass, we’re looking at 6% of the general fund, the state’s discretionary income, going to interest payments in 2010.

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Pardon the sophomoric pun; it’s inevitable given the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District acronym. Measure R, at its core, is a sales-tax hike of $0.0025 for every dollar spent in Sonoma County and Marin County for twenty years. For the duration of the twenty years, this sales tax increase is to be used for subsidizing a passenger rail system from Cloverdale to Larkspur.
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