Supporting Proposition 32 – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael D. Robbins

The following letter to the editor was published in The Beach Reporter newspaper (TBRnews.com) on Thursday, October 11, 2012 in the Letters section. The Beach Reporter has a strict 250-word limit.

Supporting Proposition 32

South Bay and other California cities are at much greater risk of bankruptcy than residents are being told. Unrealistic optimistic revenue projections by city finance directors have not come to fruition, just as I warned would happen in El Segundo. City revenues actually declined.

Voters can and must help protect against city bankruptcies by voting “YES” on Proposition 32. It puts voters first by cutting the money tie between politicians and special interests and ensuring every individual contribution is made voluntarily.

Special interests have already contributed $43 million to defeat Proposition 32 with totally deceptive campaign ads. The same government employee unions that have been driving cities and school districts toward bankruptcy with astronomical and unsustainable salaries, benefits and pensions have contributed 98 percent of that campaign money ($42 million).

Proposition 32 will break the stranglehold government employee unions have on Sacramento and local government — that has blocked real and meaningful compensation and pension reform, and Senate Bill 1530, which would have made it easier to dismiss teachers who sexually abuse their students.

It bans automatic employee payroll deductions for political campaign contributions by labor unions, government and corporations, and bans direct union and corporate campaign contributions to state and local candidates for public office. Employees will still be allowed to make voluntary individual campaign contributions as they choose.

The only “loophole” is the one Proposition 32 closes — the one that allows corrupt unions to campaign against Proposition 32 using involuntary employee payroll deductions.

See http://PublicSafetyProject.org/ and http://YesProp32.com/ for more information.

Michael Robbins
El Segundo