San Diego – Opponents to Proposition 1A today demanded that Governor Schwarzenegger explain where California will find $13 billion in “rainy day” funds required under Proposition 1A, when education, health care, and services for seniors have already been severely cut and budget deficits are projected to get worse, not better, in coming years.

Standing under umbrellas to illustrate how the state has already been deluged by a devastating fiscal rainstorm, opponents of the measure said that Prop 1A won’t do what its supporters claim it will do. Rather than acting as a rainy day fund that would protect schools, health care, and services for seniors and people with disabilities, Prop 1A’s confusing and convoluted requirements would drain funding from critical services even in the worst economic times. 

“We do not object to the idea of a rainy day fund, but creating one in this terrible economic climate will not help our state and will just leave more Californians out in the rain,” Sharon-Frances Moore, President of SEIU Local 221 said.

Prop 1A would force more cuts to schools and families on top of billions in devastating cuts in recent years, locking California into bottom of the barrel funding levels including: 47th in the US in per pupil spending; last in K-12 students per teacher; the elimination of Medi-Cal dental and other services for the elderly, disabled and poor; 10,000 fewer students will be enrolled in California State Universities next year; and about 40% higher fees for UC and CSU students this fall versus five years ago.

Prop 1A would lock more rigid and complex spending formulas into California’s constitution with no flexibility to take into account basic realities such as an aging population or rising health care costs.

“Prop 1A is bad for seniors because it caps programs that keep us in our homes and will not keep up with the rise in health care costs annually. As the demand for services by baby boomers is increasing, this cap would force a decrease in funding,” said Chuck Latimer, San Diego Chapter Representative, California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA).

Prop 1A also represents Governor Schwarzenegger’s latest attempt to grab new, unchecked powers over the budget.  The governor’s political appointee would decide when funds are diverted into the rainy day slush fund, and Prop 1A would also give Governor Schwarzenegger new, unilateral authority to make mid-year spending cuts, with no checks and balances.

Even as Prop 1A forces more cuts to schools, health care, and services for seniors and people with disabilities, gaping loopholes mean the “rainy day” fund will become a $13 billion slush fund that could be spent on more borrowing or pork barrel projects.

Proposition 1A’s opponents include the League of Women Voters of California, Congress of California Seniors, Health Access California, California Nurses Association, California Federation of Teachers, Consumer Federation of California, Older Women’s League of California, SEIU California State Council, and the California Faculty Association.