The other initiatives are:
46 (housing- YES) As I discussed here, the housing crisis is real, and while these bonds will get spent and won’t solve the problem, a few tens of thousands of people will be better housed because we spent this money.
47 (school bonds – NEUTRAL) I know that our public school infrastructure is decaying (I see it every day at my son’s schools, which are relatively good), but I’m uncertain about spending this money now. On one hand, the needs are real, as with housing above; on the other many of the school districts (L.A. Unified) haven’t done a very good job with the money they’ve been given already. I’m probably going to toss a coin tomorrow morning on this one.
48 (combine courts – YES) This makes ministerial changes to state law to reflect the fact that all 58 of California’s counties have combined their Municipal and Superior courts in an effort to streamline and cut costs. This simply changes the state law to eliminate references to ‘Municipal’ courts when there aren’t any.
49 (afterschool care –YES) As noted below this is about positioning Ah-nold to run for Governor (which I think would actually be kinda fun…he’s not an idiot), and incidentally may improve the lives of a few hundred thousand kids. So I’m for it.
50 (water bonds – NO) I’d support 2/3 of the projects in this (excluding the purchases of wetlands in a private and negotiated process from major developers), but the other 1/3 just isn’t palatable at a time when the budget is as crunched as it really is.
51 (‘transportation’ bonds – NO) This is a scam, and the people responsible (yes, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, this means you) ought to be ashamed.
L.A. County A (Museum and Parks Bonds – NO) I’d love to see a cool new Rem Koolhaas L.A. County museum. Some group of rich people should get together and fund it. At a time when we can’t afford decent schools, police, or a health system, building monuments to high culture (or cathedrals, for that matter) ought to be on the back burner.
L.A. County B (Healthcare – YES) Vote early and often for this one, or in fact your children may die. It is not only my local Level 1 Trauma Center, it is one of three for the entire region. The health finance systems in this country are broken. We need to fix them. While we’re fixing them, we ought to keep the hospitals open. Period.