☆ Election roundup (3/14): Why SCC voters broke up with Prop 5 (and they're never, ever getting back together)
With over 796 million hits, Taylor Swift sings in her lighthearted 2012 music video "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" about breaking up with her boyfriend—for good this time.
Proposition 5 (lowering CA's voter approval req't for infrastructure bonds) was wholeheartedly rejected by State and County voters this cycle. Below, SV Taxpayers Ass'n board member John Inks explains why. For this Opp Now exclusive installment, we also talked to transit expert Tom Rubin and real estate agent Mark Burns, who share some wins (and annoyances) from Election '24.
Biggest winner of the election?
John Inks, Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association board member: What impressed me most in this election was the defeat of Proposition 5.
Despite its support from the California Firefighters, League of Cities, League of Women Voters, and other government employee associations, 56 percent of voters rightly said no to Prop. 5, as the Silicon Valley and Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Associations had recommended.
Prop. 5 would have been a savage attack on Prop. 13, slashing the two-thirds passage requirement for special taxes and certain bonds, thus eroding voters’ power to stem the tide of property taxes throughout California.
Fortunately, we will maintain the tax limitations—and vital protection of both homeowners and renters—of 1978’s landmark Prop. 13.
Tom Rubin, California transit consultant: School districts and environmental bonds. Republicans in the Central Valley and Mountains to the east of the Central Valley.
Biggest annoyance?
Mark Burns, Bay Area real estate agent: I don't look at Facebook very often, but they have that reels part on the Facebook where you can click on it—and the algorithm pays attention to whether you want to see somebody doing their best imitation of Eddie Van Halen, or you can watch Freddie Mercury at Wembley.
It’s like having an eight-track tape in your 1970 Firebird; and right in the middle of watching something like that, it would break, and there would be Gilbert Wong saying, “Hi, I'm Gilbert Wong, and I'm running for city council.”
And I'm like, “Get out of here. I want to watch the whole three minutes without being interrupted.”
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