Ironically – but perhaps fatefully – Proposition 1A lost by about the same margin by which Proposition 13 prevailed: 30 points. Many things are different between yesterday’s election and the one held in June, 1978, but they certainly have this in common: the lessons that elected officials take from voters will have big consequences down the road.
In 1978, Proposition 13 not only brought tax skepticism to the top of the political order, but the then-“obscene” budget surplus allowed the Legislature to soften the blow to local governments, thereby postponing the day of reckoning and creating entanglements between state and local and school finances that bedevil us to this day.
In 2009 it is now the budget deficit that is obscene. The Legislature will choose from among many options to address this challenge, but the lesson from 31 years ago is that the most expedient choices may create even more intractable problems in the years ahead.