May 2014 Archives

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" . . .Santanyana

            It has often been presumed that the history of human events proceeds in a circular fashion such that the players in the human drama are forced to repeat regrettable mistakes over and over again.

            The Middle Ages, often referred to as the "Dark Ages" because the Greek and Roman civilizations had fallen, was a time when Europeans were hard pressed to stay alive.  The European peasant could no longer depend on the Roman army for protection against various invading German, Viking and Magyar tribes who plundered homes and farms throughout Europe leaving death and destruction in their wake.  As a result many peasants gave up their freedom to become a serf in exchange for protection by the local Noble.  During this historical period, a manor was the sole property of a noble who owned a castle, small village, farmland and everything on it.

This obscure proposition attempts to compare itself with the highly successful Cal-Vet Home Loan Program.  Don't be fooled; there is no comparison.  The Cal Vet program was designed to give California veterans a low interest rate loan to purchase a home and the loan payments have always covered the amount owed on the bonds created for these loans; hence, there is no direct cost to taxpayers.

Proposition 41 desires access to unused portions of the Cal Vet Home Loan bonds to fund local governments, nonprofit organizations, and private developers with financial assistance to construct, renovate or acquire affordable multifamily housing.  According to the Legislative Analyst, the cost to taxpayers for repayment of these bonds will average $50 million annually for 15 years.  Moreover, a Veterans Finance Committee is created to administer this program at an estimated cost of $30 million.

This proposition leaves us to guess how this money is to be administered; a low interest rate loan is mentioned, but no guidelines are written into this poorly worded proposition.  An assistance program for "homeless veterans" is probably needed but this one is just another loosely contrived tax and creates another State beauracracy!  Vote NO.

A Los Angeles Times news article (Dec, 2006) criticized the excessive overtime charges submitted by prison guards because of massive prison overcrowding.   Ironically, this article offered little sympathy for the 174,000 felons who were incarcerated in 33 prisons designed to hold 100,000 inmates.  Three years later, Governor Schwarzenegger, in his State of the State address (January 2010), compared California's $50,000 per inmate, per year cost, to other states which average $32,000 and Texas, which houses nearly as many felons as California, but spends less than a third as much on its system.