Pete Rates the Propositions
November 1993

Proposition 168: Removing Obstacles for Low-Rent Housing Projects – YES

to come

Proposition 169: Multi-Subject Budget Bill – YES

to come

Proposition 170: Majority Vote on School Bonds – YES

to come

Proposition 171: Reassessment Exemption for County-Jumping Disaster Victims – NO

to come

Proposition 172: Extension of Half-Cent Sales Tax – YES

to come

Proposition 173: Use of Existing Bonds to Assist First-Time Home Buyers – YES

Once upon a ballot dreary, as you pondered, bored and weary,
Some obscure provision of a bill you'd just as soon ignore,
Suddenly you spied a measure which, although not quite a treasure,
Might help people purchase homes with incomes moderate or poor—
Just this goal and nothing more.

Back in '82, it states here, whent the mortgage interest rates here
Were so high a first-time buyer barely could get in the door,
Voters passed Prop 5, supplying rate reductions to those buying
Their first houses if their incomes were below a certain score—
Authorizing bonds galore.

In eleven years (and counting) of the program, great discounting
Of the Prime has driven interest rates down nearly to the floor.
So the problem, as you gather, isn't interest rates, but rather
Finding the down-payment for that condo out in Livermore.
"Just the place you're looking for!"

Of the bonds Prop 5 allotted, few were used, so it's been plotted
To allow them to reduce down-payments for the working poor.
Prop 173 will let the State use Prop 5 bonds to get the
Folks with lower incomes out of situations we deplore.
So vote "yes." That is your chore!

Proposition 174: School Vouchers – NO

to come

 
 
 
Copyright © 1980-2012 Peter L. Stahl
Your comments are welcome at pete@peterates.com