Prop. 3 is being touted by unions as a school funding bill. That's partly true
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Set us as preferred The well-funded campaign for Proposition 3 describes it as a direly needed tool for funding public schools.“Prop.
3 maintains critical funding for local schools, preventing larger class sizes and teacher layoffs,” says a video ad on YouTube.“Every dollar goes to local schools, not politicians in Sacramento.”In reality, the ballot initiative is another tax measure on high-income Californians, this one helping to pay for all state services supported by general fund dollars, including healthcare, courts and schools.
In other words, schools are the sales pitch to voters for a tax measure that affects considerably more than schools.The measure has huge support from California’s largest teachers union, and it is separate from Proposition 40, the billionaire tax measure.
No one is staunchly fighting Proposition 3 — including the group of billionaires who would rather see it pass than 40.Proposition 3 would make permanent higher tax rates on about the highest-earning 2% of the state’s tax filers, rates that would otherwise expire at the end of 2030.
If these tax rates were allowed to expire, the state’s general fund would absorb a massive annual hit of an estimated $5 billion to $15 billion in today’s dollars.Of the money raised by this tax, about 40% goes to funds that pay for transitional kindergarten through community college.About 60% goes to other areas — healthcare, in-home supportive services, higher education, the prison system, the court system and more.
That explains why a broad coalition of unions supports the Yes on Proposition 3 campaign, even if the overriding pitch is about schools.The biggest spender in support of Proposition 3 is the California Teachers Assn.— which poured about $60 million into promoting it through Monday and has harnessed its vast membership for on-the...