No More Prisons – Santa Barbara Voters Say No to Measure S

By: Craig Gilmore

Buried under instant analysis of California’s seeming return to being the Left Coast of American politics was a significant vote in Santa Barbara County.

Santa Barbara is one of 11 counties across California to have been offered funds —$56 million in this case— to expand its jail system as a part of Schwarzenegger’s plan to build 40-50,000 new jail and prison cells. State funds would have paid for part of the cost of construction and none of the ongoing operations costs while voters were asked whether to extend a temporary 1/2 cent sales tax increase to pay the county’s share.

In the only ballot measure in California in which voters were allowed to decide whether to expand the prison and jail systems, Measure S went down hard: 61 percent voted NO; 39 percent YES.

Is Santa Barbara another of those hyper-liberal coastal counties? Jerry Brown’s margin of victory statewide over Meg Whitman was 13 percent; he carried Santa Barbara County by only two percent. Steve Cooley, Republican candidate for Attorney General, is in a dead heat with Democrat Kamala Harris statewide. His margin in Santa Barbara was a comfortable five percent.

Was the vote simply anti-tax? Santa Barbara voters approved new bonds for secondary schools (69%-31%) and for primary schools (71%-29%). The statewide proposal to increase vehicle license fees to pay for parks lost (53% NO – 47% YES), but by a far narrower margin than the jail tax. Significantly more voters were willing to pay higher taxes or fees for parks than for jails.

In fact, Santa Barbara votes were in line with every statewide poll result of the past 10 years. Californians have consistently listed prisons as their lowest budget priority, calling for cuts in prison spending in order to preserve or restore K-12 education.

Sacramento has known for years that voters won’t approve new debt for prison expansion, which explains the fact that most counties have not allowed their jail expansion plans to go before voters. When the state legislature approved Schwarzenegger’s massive prison and jail building plan they were careful to ensure that Californians would not be allowed to vote on whether to borrow the $7.7 billion price; instead, they financed it with more expensive lease revenue bonds that don’t require voter approval.

In response to a question of how he will deal with California’s ongoing budget crisis, Governor-elect Brown said he would be guided by these three questions: “What does California need, what does California want and what is California prepared to pay?"

Santa Barbara voters reaffirmed what everyone paying attention to California politics has known for a decade; Californians don’t want more prisons, Californians don’t need more prisons and Californians can’t afford more prisons