California State Treasurer and Controller Issue Prop 10 Warning
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and State Controller John Chiang issued a joint statement today warning that Proposition 10 will harm California’s financial situation:
“In our judgment as California’s chief financial officers, Proposition 10 is harmful to California’s financial health. Every major conservation group agrees that Proposition 10 is misguided environmental policy. But Proposition 10 is worse than that. Proposition 10 is an unwise effort to put our state government five billion dollars further in debt.
California is facing record deficits and soaring public bond debt. It is always bad policy to use long-term bonds to fund generous short term private benefits going to a relative handful of corporations and individuals, as Proposition 10 proposes to do. General obligation bonds with a thirty year repayment period should be used for capital improvements that benefit all Californians – for building schools, universities, roads, bridges and other permanent structures that serve the general public – not to pay for non-durable products for fewer than one percent of Californians, as Proposition 10 would do.
Today, especially given our state government’s precarious financial situation, Proposition 10 is a very bad investment. We urge a NO vote on Proposition 10.”
Bill Lockyer John Chiang
California State Treasurer California State Controller
Background: Proposition 10 is a $5 billion bond measure that will appear on the November ballot. The taxpayer cost to repay the bonds is $10 billion over 30 years. Prop 10 was written and paid for by Clean Energy Fuels Corp, a company owned by Texas oil tycoon T. Bone Pickens. A broad based coalition of environmental, consumer, business, taxpayer, labor and civic organizations opposes Prop 10, pointing out that the initiative does nothing to clean up our environment, and that it will enrich Mr. Pickens and interstate trucking companies at the expense of our schools, public safety, health and other vital services that must be cut to pay for the bonds.
