Prop. 39: Zipper Your Pocketbooks

When the former governor, Pete Wilson, gets together with Gov. Gray Davis to support, in a television commercial, the infamous Prop. 39, the public--the property taxpayers, the renters--should close the zippers on their pocketbooks. Prop. 39 is nothing less than a huge property tax increase for all concerned. No renter can escape it, when taxes go up.

When will politicians learn that the best way to help schoolchildren is to ask straight out for help, at everybody’s expense, not just at property owners’? Ask for it, fairly and squarely, as a single item with no strings attached. No tricks!

Prop. 26 was the last attempt at this dodge, in the March primary. Prop. 39 sugarcoats the issue by reducing the 66 2/3% vote requirement protecting taxpayers to 55%. The politicians know 55% means those in power could raise taxes any time they want.

NORMAN R. PAPARO

Cathedral City

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A Times editorial on Oct. 16 urges voters to vote in favor of Prop. 39. The Times says that school bonds “slightly” increase property taxes. Of course, “slightly” depends on how much free-wheeling space is afforded to the big spenders in the administrative offices of the school boards. The Times suggests that a “watchdog” citizen commission should be augmented by a cap on the amount property taxes could be raised. This so-called cap would be set by the Legislature. Can property owners rely on the free-spending Democrat Legislature to miss this chance to wreck Prop. 13? Who’s kidding whom?

Passage of Prop. 39 lowering the vote threshold from a two-thirds majority to 55% is something that the proponents sneakily haven’t told the homeowners. Vote no and remove any doubts.

JAMES KERR

Laguna Beach