Passing local tax measures has become big business, and California voters will face another barrage of proposals this year because cities are facing unprecedented fiscal crises, born mostly of rapidly increasing demands by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) for more money to shore up its shaky finances.
However, based on how these local tax measures have been packaged by Lew Edwards and other consultants in past years, this year’s voters won’t be told that more of their money is needed for pensions, because that wouldn’t sell very well.
What does sell, according to the polling that Edwards and others conduct, is “public safety,” along with fixing local streets and roads. Therefore the demands for more pension funds are typically reconfigured in tax proposals as bolstering police and fire protection.
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