Nine million reasons to vote NO on Prop. 56

Here are the top contributors to the Yes on 56 campaign:

  • Service Employees International Union, $6 million
  • California Teachers Association, $1.7 million
  • California Federation of Teachers, $911,000
  • California School Employees Association, $374,000
  • California Faculty Association, $254,000

Full story here:

Public employee unions, dependent on a steady stream of taxpayer dollars for salaries and benefits, have spent more than $9 million of their members' dues to push Proposition 56, the ballot measure that would make it easier to pass a state budget.

While the pro-56 campaign touts its support from the League of Women Voters and Parent Teacher Association, campaign finance reports show that unions representing nearly 1 million state and local government workers have provided nearly all the money for the campaign and television ads portraying the Legislature in a food fight.

The union-financed ballot measure advocated in those ads would allow lawmakers to pass budgets and raise taxes with a 55 percent majority, long a goal of public sector unions stymied by the current requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve a budget.

The Service Employees International Union alone has contributed nearly $6 million to the campaign. The union represents more than 200,000 employees in California, including large numbers of health care workers and county workers dependent on state funding.

Associations representing school and university employees -- an estimated 26 percent of all union workers in California -- have put up $3.6 million more to pass the measure.

According to the Yes on 56 people, here are the top industries contributing to the No side:

  • Oil Companies $1,036,000
  • Tobacco Companies $582,581
  • Alcohol Companies $2,307,652
  • Insurance Companies $835,317

I'm not particularly interested in being on the same side as Chevron/Texaco and the "Distilled Spirits Council." But, any side with SEIU and the educational establishment on it is one I don't want to be on.