In rejecting the initiative, Californians should remember how measures like this one and its two predecessors, including 2002's Proposition 42, have convoluted our tax and budget system. In the state's zero-sum revenue game, the latest bright idea to fund a favorite program such as schools, transportation or public safety simply sweeps the money out of the rest of the budget. That's something to keep in mind whenever some new gambit is proposed to fund a program while promising no new taxes. A plethora of such initiatives over the decades created the current budget emergency that requires 10% cuts in all programs.

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