Lawmakers trying again to deceive voters

Every two years, local officials use the ballot to carry out one of California's biggest consumer frauds.

Rather than stop this repeated hiding of borrowing costs, state legislators are once again trying to enable it. Gov. Gavin Newsom used a veto to block the lawmakers in 2019. That hasn't deterred the chief enabler, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, from trying again this year.

At issue is transparency for billions of dollars of bond measures put before voters by school, city, county and transit district leaders. The money is to be used for capital improvements, such as new schools, government offices, roads or commuter rail cars.

Many voters don't understand that bonds are a form of borrowing, which means these measures also require tax increases, usually property tax increases, to pay off the loans.

The payments are typically hundreds of dollars a year for homeowners and more for larger commercial properties. The charges last for three or four decades. It's like committing to make a portion of the payments on a mortgage. Landlords often pass on the cost to tenants, so renters feel the pain as well.

The cost is what local government officials want to hide. They know that more voters are likely to support the measures if they don't know the price tags. Although state law requires the ballot wording to include the cost, officials, guided by campaign consultants and mischievous government attorneys, have devised wording to obfuscate.

What's needed are tougher transparency laws. Instead, local officials whine that they can't find a way to include the cost in the 75-word ballot summary most voters rely on. As we have repeatedly said, and demonstrated, that claim is total bunk.

We have provided suggested wording — and do so again today — to show that officials' can, within the 75-word limit, describe the benefits of their measures, make explicit that they involve raising taxes and understandably summarize the amount of the taxes.

Nevertheless, Wiener in 2019 pushed through legislation that would have eliminated the requirement that the ballot wording include the cost to taxpayers. Instead, the wording would simply say, “See voter guide for measure information statement.”

Wiener and the labor unions and the local officials who backed his 2019 effort know that most voters with a long list of measures and candidate races on their ballots are unlikely to go beyond the ballot wording. Backers of the 2019 effort just want voters to learn about the good stuff the money would buy, not the cost of the loan that would come with it.

In his veto message, Newsom said he was concerned the bill would “reduce transparency for local tax and bond measures.” That's just as true about Wiener's latest attempt, SB 532, which would do the same thing.

Legislators should stop enabling this deceit. And Newsom, who deserves commendation for his 2019 veto, should be prepared to do so again this year.