Since the VLF revenue goes to local governments, cutting the tax could have savaged county governments. But as part of the deal that cut the VLF, the state promised to make up the revenue loss. Officials are scrambling there to make up the revenue loss. Nowick's legal research helped torpedo a similar initiative here that Republican Assemblyman Tom McClintock was attempting to put on next year's ballot. But the VLF challenge is not the only thing eating into the projected surplus.
Several lawsuits threaten to claim even more.
So the surplus isn't as dramatic as it looks at first glance. Hill estimated that education spending per pupil would grow about 1.6 percent a year in inflation-adjusted dollars, well below the overall growth of the state economy. Had we not done that tax cut, as Pete Wilson insisted, we'd have all this money to spend on education. The initiative does not specify a funding source, leaving that politically sensitive choice to the governor and the Legislature. So they are saying, 'You can put the money there, or we'll do it for you.