The following letter to the editor was published in The Beach Reporter newspaper (TBRnews.com) on Thursday, September 20, 2012 in the Letters section. The Beach Reporter has a strict 250-word limit.
State Ballot Measures
Please vote “yes” on Proposition 32 (bans direct union and corporate contributions to candidates) and “no” on Propositions 30 (income and sales tax hike), 34 (repeals death penalty), 36 (three-strikes dilution), 38 (income tax hike), and 40 (gerrymandered redistricting plan).
Proposition 32 helps prevent El Segundo and other South Bay and California cities from being pushed toward bankruptcy by city employee unions and corporations that buy influence with politicians who then pay them back with our tax money and raise our taxes and fees to pay for it. Typical payoffs are one million tax dollars for every thousand donated.
Corrupt and wildly overpaid firefighter and police unions are spending millions of dollars in deceptive campaign ads to defeat Proposition 32. These unions have been bankrupting our cities and jacking up our taxes and fees, so they can get total compensation of $150,000 to more than $300,000 per year, and retire at age 50 or 55, with a guaranteed pension paying up to 90 percent of their single highest year salary.
Vote “no” on Propositions 30 and 38 to prevent income and sales tax hikes to pay for wildly excessive and unsustainable government employee union salaries, raises and pensions.
Vote “no” on Proposition 34 to preserve the death penalty, which saves substantial taxpayer money by convincing multiple-murderers to plead guilty to life in prison without an expensive trial.
Vote “no” on Proposition 40 to reject the gerrymandered redistricting plan that creates safe, non-competitive election districts for incumbents.
See http://PublicSafetyProject.org/ for more information.
Michael Robbins
El Segundo
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed