Prop 21 - Vehicle License Fee to Fund State Parks
Sorry, folks, for the delay. I have no idea if more than one or two of you actually read this stuff, and given the late date and the popularity of absentee voting, how useful this is to those of you who do, but I said I'd do this, and it's been far too much procrastinating for me, so here goes...
Prop 21 - Vehicle License Fee to Fund State Parks
How Things Are Now:
California has 278 State Parks managed either by the Dept. of Parks and Rec, or by local entities. About half of the budget to run them (abt. $150 million) comes from the General Fund; the other half from use fees (admission, camping, etc.) and from gasoline tax revenues. Most State Parks charge a fee, between $5 and $15 per day to each vehicle for a day-use pass.
Also, the State manages several wildlife conservation programs through various agencies, such as the Dept. of Fish and Game, which are paid for by the General Fund, as well as regulatory fees (read: fines from F&G tickets, and other corporate fines), and bond funds.
What This Changes:
The Prop imposes a yearly $18 surcharge on each vehicle registered in the State (side note: every vehicle that spends more than 30 days in the State must be registered in California, no matter how much time remains on the existing Other-State sticker. But you almost certainly knew that). In exchange, the day-use pass fee (and only that fee) would be waived for all California-registered vehicles (out-of-state driver visitors would still have to pay). 85% of the generated revenue would be allocated to management, upkeep, maintenance, and expansion of State Parks. The remaining 15% would be allocated to the same thing for State wildlife conservancies.
My Take:
Folks, it's no secret that I like video games (hang on, it all comes around), especially arcade video games. I grew up with them, in the arcade heyday of the early 1980's. There's honestly nothing like playing a video game in an arcade. Between the experience of saving up $10 in allowance to blow it all in an afternoon, to the cameraderie of getting a high score, that today's home video games, while clearly superior in graphics, can't hold a candle to them. And arcades are an endangered breed. Other than the occasional bowling alley Dance Dance Revoluiton game, or the (very) odd 7-11 with a relic in the corner, there are barely a handful of them left (the one in Merced exists on the fringes of society, with a moldering pile of barely-maintained games from the 1980's with a collection of midway ticket-collection games and Skee-ball alleys).
So, here's my proposal. Every computer software package sold (from Wii and Playstation games to productivity and word-processing software) in the State will have a $1 surcharge, in addition to all State and sales taxes. That $1 will be collected by a State revenue agency, the Dept. of Arcade Games. In exchange, every person, upon showing a special card that comes with any software program sold in the State, shall be granted admission to any arcade in the State, and get unlimited free play tokens as long as they're there. Of course, since we can't have any freeloading Arizonans sneaking across the border to hog our gameplay, we'll still need to employ all the token cashiers and gatekeepers that we always had; it's just that us Californians can collect tokens at will.
Great idea, huh? What's that, you say? You haven't been to an arcade in decades, maybe never? The ones you remember were always dank holes that catered to the worst kind of teenage hoodlums (which was fine when you were a teenage hoodlum, but nowadays, they're just scary)? Maybe you prefer the ability to play more nuanced games in the privacy of your own home and where you don't have to wait in line to play. Too bad. No refunds. The State still collects your money off the top, every computer program you buy. And don't forget, there's no savings, because, just because a non-Californian would be rare in most arcades, you still have to employ the exact same number of arcade employees as before, because we can't risk a non-Californian showing up and getting in for free.
That's pretty much the way this Proposition works - collect a fee (off of an already ridiculously high vehicle license fee) from every driver, and promise a carrot that, should you ever wind up actually going to a State Park, the fee will be waived (which doesn't even make sense unless you go to a State park more then once a year). Just as my arcade scheme benefits a small minority of Californians by socking it to the majority for something most won't even use, so does this Prop sock it to every driver, for the benefit of a small minority of those who go to State Parks multiple times a year (usually the more affluent among us, who have the time and resources to go out of their way, to Yosemite, or to admission-only beaches).
And, just like in my arcade scheme, the authors can't even claim to save the average person the fig leaf of lowered expenditures, because the toll-takers will wtill have to sit in those kiosks; they just will have (A LOT) less to do. So the taxpayer gets a double "stivk in the craw" - S/he has to pay $18 to avoid a $5-15 fee, and when he does, there's a State employee sitting in the kiosk, doing practically nothing for the "work" of making sure that no one from Nevada or Arizona sneaks onto the property without paying their fee.
My Vote:
Sorry, environmentalists, this one's a NO for me.
Prop 21 - Vehicle License Fee to Fund State Parks
How Things Are Now:
California has 278 State Parks managed either by the Dept. of Parks and Rec, or by local entities. About half of the budget to run them (abt. $150 million) comes from the General Fund; the other half from use fees (admission, camping, etc.) and from gasoline tax revenues. Most State Parks charge a fee, between $5 and $15 per day to each vehicle for a day-use pass.
Also, the State manages several wildlife conservation programs through various agencies, such as the Dept. of Fish and Game, which are paid for by the General Fund, as well as regulatory fees (read: fines from F&G tickets, and other corporate fines), and bond funds.
What This Changes:
The Prop imposes a yearly $18 surcharge on each vehicle registered in the State (side note: every vehicle that spends more than 30 days in the State must be registered in California, no matter how much time remains on the existing Other-State sticker. But you almost certainly knew that). In exchange, the day-use pass fee (and only that fee) would be waived for all California-registered vehicles (out-of-state driver visitors would still have to pay). 85% of the generated revenue would be allocated to management, upkeep, maintenance, and expansion of State Parks. The remaining 15% would be allocated to the same thing for State wildlife conservancies.
My Take:
Folks, it's no secret that I like video games (hang on, it all comes around), especially arcade video games. I grew up with them, in the arcade heyday of the early 1980's. There's honestly nothing like playing a video game in an arcade. Between the experience of saving up $10 in allowance to blow it all in an afternoon, to the cameraderie of getting a high score, that today's home video games, while clearly superior in graphics, can't hold a candle to them. And arcades are an endangered breed. Other than the occasional bowling alley Dance Dance Revoluiton game, or the (very) odd 7-11 with a relic in the corner, there are barely a handful of them left (the one in Merced exists on the fringes of society, with a moldering pile of barely-maintained games from the 1980's with a collection of midway ticket-collection games and Skee-ball alleys).
So, here's my proposal. Every computer software package sold (from Wii and Playstation games to productivity and word-processing software) in the State will have a $1 surcharge, in addition to all State and sales taxes. That $1 will be collected by a State revenue agency, the Dept. of Arcade Games. In exchange, every person, upon showing a special card that comes with any software program sold in the State, shall be granted admission to any arcade in the State, and get unlimited free play tokens as long as they're there. Of course, since we can't have any freeloading Arizonans sneaking across the border to hog our gameplay, we'll still need to employ all the token cashiers and gatekeepers that we always had; it's just that us Californians can collect tokens at will.
Great idea, huh? What's that, you say? You haven't been to an arcade in decades, maybe never? The ones you remember were always dank holes that catered to the worst kind of teenage hoodlums (which was fine when you were a teenage hoodlum, but nowadays, they're just scary)? Maybe you prefer the ability to play more nuanced games in the privacy of your own home and where you don't have to wait in line to play. Too bad. No refunds. The State still collects your money off the top, every computer program you buy. And don't forget, there's no savings, because, just because a non-Californian would be rare in most arcades, you still have to employ the exact same number of arcade employees as before, because we can't risk a non-Californian showing up and getting in for free.
That's pretty much the way this Proposition works - collect a fee (off of an already ridiculously high vehicle license fee) from every driver, and promise a carrot that, should you ever wind up actually going to a State Park, the fee will be waived (which doesn't even make sense unless you go to a State park more then once a year). Just as my arcade scheme benefits a small minority of Californians by socking it to the majority for something most won't even use, so does this Prop sock it to every driver, for the benefit of a small minority of those who go to State Parks multiple times a year (usually the more affluent among us, who have the time and resources to go out of their way, to Yosemite, or to admission-only beaches).
And, just like in my arcade scheme, the authors can't even claim to save the average person the fig leaf of lowered expenditures, because the toll-takers will wtill have to sit in those kiosks; they just will have (A LOT) less to do. So the taxpayer gets a double "stivk in the craw" - S/he has to pay $18 to avoid a $5-15 fee, and when he does, there's a State employee sitting in the kiosk, doing practically nothing for the "work" of making sure that no one from Nevada or Arizona sneaks onto the property without paying their fee.
My Vote:
Sorry, environmentalists, this one's a NO for me.