Dishonest Ballots Were Planned
January 11, 2019

I looked at all the local measures on the November 6, 2018 ballot around the state. Since 315 of the 388 local tax measures passed, I broke down the new or extended taxes by category. I analyzed the ones that passed for conformity to AB-195. Here are the results.

November 2018
Local Tax Measures
Tax Type	Passed	Conforming¹	% Conforming
business license tax	7	0	.00%
cannabis business tax	72	9	12.50%
documentary transfer tax	5	1	20.00%
EFID bond	1	0	.00%
parcel tax²	34	8	23.53%
Prop 39 bond	91	0	.00%
Prop 46 bond	9	0	.00%
transactions and use tax	58	2	3.45%
transient occupancy tax	36	2	5.56%
utility revenue transfer tax	1	0	.00%
utility users tax	2	0	.00%
Total	316	22	6.96%
Total School/College	106	0	.00%
¹ Conforming related to Elections Code 13119(a), the most straight-forward of the subparagraphs. No local tax measures that passed conforms to all three subparagraphs of AB-195. ² The only reason that the parcel tax percentage is so high is due to seven towns and special districts in Marin County that each used an identical measure to fund four more years of emergency medical services.

Dishonest ballots were planned. Note that 100% of local school and college tax measures that passed did not conform. Coincidence? "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

"In FM3's surveys, [AB-195] led to substantially lower support for many bond measures - in some cases 10-15 points." - FM3

AB-195 was the big issue that the school bonds cartel had to overcome. So it did. It just ignored it.

One of the premier school bonds cartel public opinion firms, Fairbank Maslin Maullin Metz & Associates Inc [FM3] produced an analysis of the election. It disclosed the negative effect of AB-195 on winning tax elections. Remember, winning is everything to the school bonds cartel. I'd already seen individual survey results on school measures that draw the same conclusion. What I didn't know was that the bad results dissuaded some local governing bodies from putting a local tax measure on the ballot.

"Finally, state legislation (such as Assembly Bill 195 of 2017) that further constrains the content of the 75-word ballot label language used to communicate essential information about every local ballot measure to voters could produce a suppressing effect on support for local finance measures, as fewer words and less language in each measure's unique ballot label would be available to describe the measure's purpose, proposed uses of funds, and accountability provisions." - FM3

You can read the whole thing here: Local Revenue Measure Results November 2018

FM3 only addressed the financial disclosure required by Elections Code 13119(b). The other two sections were ignored by all. Also remember that the school bonds cartel had made two attempts to repeal AB-195 in 2018. The second time was a budget trailer bill that the school bonds cartel was hoping would pass right up to the filing deadline of August 10, 2018.

The school bonds cartel is worried. Imagine the havoc full enforcement of AB-195 would have on local tax measures in general and Proposition 39 school bond measures specifically. That will only happen if you force your county elections officials to do their job.

There is still time to take a well-thought-out step (site members only) to strike back at this blatant fraud.

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Dishonest Ballots Were PlannedJanuary 11, 2019

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Dishonest Ballots Were Planned
January 11, 2019