Transcription
There are some late developments on the measures that will appear on the November midterm ballot in California. One proposal from Newsome and California Democrats, they want to raid the reserve fund in the state budget and cancel any tax rebates you may be owed. Plus, we've got a way to defeat the billionaire's tax. It comes in the form of audit special taxes, a new measure that just qualified for the November ballot. All that and more coming up.
So now they just want to get rid of your rebate. They want to get rid of the rainy day fund. They want to spend more money. This is all about spending more money. It's not about fiscal responsibility. It's about absolute recklessness.
I'm Carl Deayo, chairman of Reform California and a California state representative. And there are two late developments in the ballot measures that will appear on the November midterm ballot here in California. Uh the first one comes in the form of one of the initiatives we've been backing. It's called audit special taxes. And we helped collect more than a million5 signatures, 1.5 million signatures to put this on the ballot. and we got word late yesterday that our signatures were verified and we have gotten uh a right to put this on the ballot.
This measure at the Secretary of State's office now requires audits of programs funded by new state special taxes. It prohibits new state taxes that are excluded from the existing voterapproved state spending limit. More on that in just a moment. It is a state constitutional amendment. Uh this is important because the measure basically says that if a special interest group decides we're going to raise someone's taxes, but we want to uh earmark the money for things that we benefit from, um that that measure, that proposal would have to undergo strict review and scrutiny. We want to make sure that we audit any of the programs that would get the taxpayer revenue because look, if you're going to do a special tax, we want to make sure that whichever programs get the special tax are well managed, that they've properly spent money, and if they do get special tax funds earmarked for them, that we go back and continually audit them. That's what the initiative requires.
Ah, but guess what? As this measure is approved, it has a clawback provision and it simply states that any initiative that appears on the ballot after January 1, 2026, any initiative enacted after January 1, 2026 would have to comply with the requirements of this ballot measure. And that means the billionaires tax, which in essence is a special tax. They're creating a special tax, a special interest group behind it. The the government unions want bloated government. They want salary hikes and pension spikes. Uh they're trying to earmark the billionaire's tax, the savings tax for whatever they want to spend the money on. If this initiative passes in November and gets more votes than the billionaire's tax, the billionaire's tax is negated, even if the billionaire's tax gets 50% plus one.
So, not only is this initiative important going forward to make sure that anytime special interests come and propose a special tax and earmark the money for a special program that they benefit from, that we have audits and that the audits be presented as voters are voting on the proposal. Not only is that important going forward, but it helps us deep six the um uh billionaire's tax because it's possible that the billionaire's tax gets 50% plus one. It might pass. But if this special audit initiative gets more votes than the billionaire's tax, the billionaire's tax is negated because it hasn't complied with these requirements that would require that voters be shown audits and summaries of audits before they vote on any special taxes. Uh, very clever. Uh, very important that we pass this. And, uh, it's possible the billionaire's tax gets taken off the ballot this week, but I don't think so. I think we're going to have to suit up and fight all the way to November to pass the audit measure that we just got qualified, but also defeat the billionaire's tax.
Here is another proposal that's going on the ballot and it comes in the form of a state constitutional amendment proposed by Gavin Newsome and California Democrats and it relates to the state spending limit. Uh did you know that we have a spending limit in the state of California? Yeah, it's not very apparent because they're spending money like drunken sailors. It's called the GAN limit. It was enacted after Prop 13 passed in 1978. The GAN limit basically said, "Hey, if we're going to limit taxes in California, we have to limit spending as well." Pretty common sense, right? Uh but uh politicians over the years have found ways to get around that state spending limit. And it relates to sometimes the uh things like the billionaires tax where a special interest group comes in and says, "Oh, we're going to raise taxes and we want all the money that we raise from this tax to not be subject to the spending limit. So, they exempt it from the GAN limit, which means they can bust through those spending caps.
Um, Gavin Newsome and Democrats want to put in a measure on the ballot this November. They call it fiscal responsibility and budget stabilization, but in fact it basically waves the GAN spending limit uh and allows them to waste more money, spend more money without any sort of limitation. So here's the headline in the LA Times. Democrats want California voters TO GIVE THEM MORE FLEXIBILITY over spending. That's literally like giving a DUI drunk driver uh a bottle of vodka from Costco, you know, one of the biggies. Um, and set of keys to a fully gassed uh car. This is insanity. And uh, you know, the way it's spun by the LA Times, it's just flexibility. IT'S JUST FLEXIBILITY. NO, WE NEED more constraint, more restriction, not more flexibility.
Here's Newsome's press release. CALIFORNIA LEADERS ANNOUNCED SAFE save for California's future act to strengthen rainy day fund strengthen rainy day fund uh and provide for fiscal responsibility to protect future generations baloney. This is almost as as as laughable as the devil issuing a press release saying that he wants to sponsor Bible study classes. Um the proposal basically again waves the spending limit. And by waving the spending limit and uh destroying the rainy day fund, what Nuome is doing is he's stealing tax rebates that you're owed. You see, under the GAN limit, and we have a a rainy day fund initiative already in our state constitution, a real one. um under the GAN limit in the rainy day fund if revenues exceed a certain amount during a budget year uh we we deposit them in the rainy day fund and any revenues above the rainy day fund required amount you are owed a tax rebate.
Most Californians don't know this because Democrats have been very manipulative in the last 15 years in keeping your money when you are actually owed a rebate. The only time you got a rebate in recent memory was in 2021 when the the uh bailout money from the federal government when everything shut down flowed through state of California and completely busted the revenue um uh uh requirements in the state constitution thus triggering a rebate. Now Newsome of course announced, "Oh, I'm so generous. I'm giving you money back." Wasn't giving you uh something out of generosity. He was giving it by force of law. Uh, and he didn't even give you what you were really owed because they cooked the books. So now they just want to get rid of your rebate. They want to get rid of the rainy day fund. They want to spend more money. This is all about spending more money. It's not about fiscal responsibility. It's about absolute recklessness.
And so at Reform California, we are going to uh if this gets put on the ballot, and I assume it will on Thursday when they vote on the assembly and the state senate floors, uh we're going to oppose this because this is not about saving money. It's about spending more money. Look, uh by Friday 5:00, we will know the entire slate of ballot measures statewide on the November ballot. And I will be giving you an update. I'll go through each of them. And as you know, Reform California publishes the plain English voter guide because a lot of these measures are going to have deceptive titles. Politicians love to deceive and lie to voters to trick them into voting. Yes means no, no means yes. We need to make sure that we publish our plain English voter guide, not only on the statewide ballot measures, but all the local ballot measures. And so, as you go to our website, reformc californiaal.org, or you can click under voter guides and that is where uh you will find uh uh us putting together in the month of July the plain English description and analysis of every statewide and every local ballot measure. This is a very exhaustive undertaking, but we do it because we want voters to know what they're voting on, and it makes our voter guide valuable to voters so that they not only vote the right way on the ballot measures locally and statewide, they they actually vote for our candidates as well. So, reformc california.org is going to be our hub in the next five months to win these ballot measure fights and to help our candidates, but we need your help as well. So, chip in a contribution at reformc california.org Plus, sign up at the bottom of the website. If you're not already signed up, please do that. We don't sell nor share any of our information. It's all about building the campaign, keeping you informed as to what's going on. And if you sign up, we will email you and text you the voter guide when your ballot arrives October 1st, 2nd, 3rd for the midterm election. Go to the bottom of the website, put in your first name, last name, email, phone, and zip code, and you'll be tethered into our growing movement to take back California. Until next time, Carl Deayo, chairman of Reform California and a California state representative. Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this episode. But before you click away, please subscribe to this channel and click that notification button so you get updated when we post new episodes. Plus, like this video and share it with your friends so that we can [music] help spread our message across the state.