Commentary: Proposition 56: It's a blank check for higher taxes

By Ted Green

In March, Californians will be voting on Proposition 56, a measure that's being sold as budget accountability.

The state could use a dose of real budget accountability, but when you take away the sugar coating on this proposal California taxpayers will find a bitter pill to swallow. At the heart of this measure is the elimination of the two-thirds legislative vote requirement to raise taxes.

Taxpayer groups call this deceptive measure the Blank Check Initiative. With one hand, Prop. 56 pretends to hold state politicians accountable for delivering a responsible budget. But with the other hand, it slips those same politicians an open-ended blank check to increase taxes, year after year.

Prop. 56 will make it easier, much easier, for politicians in Sacramento to raise income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and any other state tax. It does away with the most important protection taxpayers have against unjustified tax increases.

There's no question that we need to do something to hold Sacramento politicians more accountable. But Prop. 56 is not that something. It has a few good provisions-such as penalties for legislators if they don't pass a budget on time-but we don't get to pick and choose among them. It's a package deal, a package that will make Sacramento less, not more accountable.

This measure's real agenda is to open up taxpayers' wallets. The Blank Check's sponsors don't mention tax increases. That provision is buried in the measure.

But that blank check is there-which is why the California Chamber of Commerce and many local chambers, the California Taxpayers' Association, California Business Alliance, California Farm Bureau Federation, California Manufacturers & Technology Association and the largest coalition of taxpayer groups ever in California all oppose Prop. 56.

To put this "license to tax" in perspective, here are some quick tax facts:

• Californians already pay $130 billion a year in state and local taxes.
• California's sales tax is one of the highest in the nation.
• California has the highest overall tax burden of all the Western states (states we compete with).
• And just last session, legislators proposed more than 100 different tax and fee hikes-totaling nearly $65 billion.

Proposition 56 would make it easier to raise taxes even higher, year after year and without bipartisan consensus. That's the wrong medicine when our economy is still struggling and taxes are already high. We need real reform in Sacramento. On the March ballot, vote no on the Blank Check Initiative-NO on Proposition 56.

To find out how you can get involved before March, call Ted Green with the No on Proposition 56 campaign at (310) 996-2678, or look online at www.NoBlankChecks.com.

(Ted Green is with Californians Against Higher Taxes, the coalition of taxpayer, consumer and business groups that is opposed to Prop. 56.)