Pete Rates the Propositions
November 1992

My Semi-Biennial Lecture on Bonds

to come

Proposition 155: $900 Million Bonds for School Construction – YES

to come

Proposition 156: $1 Billion Bonds for Rail Transportation – YES

to come

Proposition 157: Toll Highway 35-Year Limit – NO

to come

Proposition 158: Restoring the Legislative Analyst's Budget – YES

to come

Proposition 159: Restoring the Auditor General's Budget – YES

to come

Proposition 160: Property Tax Exemption for Military Widow(er)s – YES

to come

Proposition 161: Physician-Assisted Suicide for Terminal Patients – YES

to come

Proposition 162: More Autonomy for Public Employee Pension Boards – YES

to come

Proposition 163: Repeal of the Snack Tax – YES

Tax on snacks. Snacks on tax.
Here are facts on tax on snacks.
Until 1991 snacks were not taxed,
So you paid the price marked on snacks' sacks.
Then the hacks and PACs, as one of their Acts,
Passed the law that jacks the snack tax to the max.
So snacks now taxed include chips in stacks,
And pretzles on racks, and little Tic Tacs.
And bottled water, and Cracker Jacks,
And candy in paper coated with wax.

(The rationale behind extending the sales tax to snack foods was that the taxed items are non-essential, “luxury” foods. So taxing snacks wouldn't add any new costs to those buying just the essential “survival” foods. Nice theory, but it doesn't wash. Poor people spend just as many dollars on snacks as rich people. Maybe more, since stores in low-income neighborhoods tend to stock more Twinkies and Ding Dongs than apples and carrots. The sales tax won't change this; it will just make poor people poorer. Taxing snacks amounts to a flat fee, imposed regardless of one's ability to pay, and is therefore unfair.)

Even lax flacks and Iraq's worst quacks
Know who a regressive snack tax attacks!
Poor whites and blacks. People in shacks.
People who live on the wrong side of the tracks.
The tax on snacks is a try by those hacks
To balance the budget on poor people's backs!
So take those taxers off our backs
By giving the axe to the tax on snacks!

Proposition 164: Congressional Term Limits – NO

to come

Proposition 165: Pete Wilson's Budget and Welfare Bill – NO

to come

Proposition 166: Requiring Employers to Provide Health Care – NO

to come

Proposition 167: Rearranging State Taxes – YES

to come

 
 
 
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