I Have a Proposition for You, and it Begins with "S"

OK, not what you were probably thinking. Besides the primaries, the LA Super Tuesday ballot also includes statewide propositions (hmm, doesn't sound too bad) and local ballot initiatives, one of them being Proposition S.

Basically, the city of LA was found to have implemented a 10% phone tax which was potentially illegal (it's in the courts right now). Illegal in the sense that it was put into place without the necessary votes per a statewide proposition passed in 1996. After years of fighting to keep the illegal tax (and losing), the city council decided to finally put it as a 9% tax on the ballot (as it should have been in the first place). Now get this...their big plug for it is that it's a tax reduction. So, their logic is, "Yeah, we've been stealing from you. Now we want to legally do the same thing, but at a 10% lower rate. Whadya say?" Or, "We want to continue fucking you with only 90% of the thrusts...is that OK?" Strangely, if you're a telemarketer, you're only taxed at 5%. WTF? And, huge media companies, like the Tribune company that owns the LA Times, are also exempt due to a provision that omits taxing the gathering or transmitting of news. And, what do you know, they're endorsing a Yes vote? Go figure.

The city council is addicted to their ill-gotten gains, so my local councilman has sent out e-mail saying that we should vote for it because otherwise horrible things will happen to city services and telling us about the reduction in stealing. Well, if you guys could spend the existing money you collect properly and not give huge tax breaks to developers, I'm sure the voters would OK additional taxes for specific purposes, as they have in the past. But, after all of this lying and scheming, I wouldn't count on it.

As you've guessed, I'm voting no on it.