Letter to the editor

Porkbarrel politics run amuck

I was deeply disappointed to see the On-line Forty-Niner editorial in support of Proposition 51.
 
Proposition 51 was thought up by the Planning and Conservation League of California as a way for members in this organization to get their pet projects approved without the state legislature approving it.
 
Imagine your tax dollars going to pay for a rail line from one side of USC to the other. Or imagine more than $200 million going to develop a massive park in Irvine. Imagine that state funds will be used to build charter schools in the Bay Area.
 
Well, imagine no more, because that is what Proposition 51 will do to your tax dollars. It is a pork-barrel feeding frenzy that will only help those special interests that wanted to get their projects on this measure.
 
If you read the measure and if you have the voter’s guide, and I hope people do, you will see that there are more than 20 pages of these projects listed and millions of dollars going to fund these projects with taxpayer monies. Many of these projects have nothing to do with improving transportation or making school buses safer.
 
This measure will bypass the legislature so that special interests can get pork projects done without having to face legislative scrutiny. I will be the first to say transportation is a serious problem here in California, but Proposition 51 will not solve this problem.
 
In fact, every major newspaper has come out against the measure ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle to the Orange County Register. They have stated the same kinds of reasons that I have stated here today.
 
With this kind of bipartisan support it is easy to see that this measure does not help California improve roads and school buses. It only serves special interests to bypass the legislature and take a big bite out of your wallet.
 
I ask that the On-line Forty-Niner review its position on this measure as it is obvious the editorial staff has not read the measure and I ask that the students here at Cal State Long Beach and people everywhere concerned with having better transit vote “no” on Proposition 51.

— Michael Benedict

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