There are a lot of reasons why legislators should be opposing Senator Don Perata’s SB 1407. This measure which would raise all kinds of fees associated with courts in order to then finance $5 BILLION in bonds (that would take about $10 BILLION in funds to repay over time) in order to build new and modernize old court facilities.
I am quite sure that there is merit in the argument that the infrastructure for our state’s court system is in need of modernization.
But the means to achieve this, as set out in SB 1407, is extremely poor public policy. You can read a cornucopia of reasons to oppose it in a column penned for the FlashReport last week by Assemblyman Joel Anderson.
Yes, it may be "legal" to do this, with revenue bonds — but that doesn’t make it right.
Last year, there was much discussion amongst Republicans about whether or not approving the emergency bond measure for prisons (you know, the one that hasn’t been implemented due to feet-dragging by Attorney General Brown) — and when I talked to GOP legislators, the consensus amongst them was that borrowing without a vote of the people was a very bad idea, and must be reserved for emergencies such as the one presented to the legislature at the time (with the receiver threatening to order the release of inmates).
There is nothing about the "need" of the courts that would obviate the course of making sure that voters always have a say on public debt.
I urge all legislators to oppose SB 1407 because it is an end-run around the voters. With the current fiscal condition of state government, and the other bond measures on the November ballot, voters deserve to see, understand and VOTE on all proposed borrowing.