A lie by omission is a lie nonetheless. Newsom’s Pro-Prop 1 commercial only mentions $1Billion for homeless veteran housing but neglects to explain the other $5Billion plus in bonds included in Prop 1 that are not veteran-specific. Newsom is using our love of veterans in the hopes voters will pass this $6.4Billion Bond package (a $9B-$12B loan repayment for future generations), based on his ad alone. Newsom failed to articulate how few of our 10,000 homeless veterans will actually be housed once the builders, bureaucrats, and administrators take their cut. Do the math: Wouldn’t that funding be better spent on hotel vouchers since that is $100,000/homeless veteran?
But what non-Veteran specific items are also in Prop 1? Prop 1 will divert 30% of the 2004 voter-approved, dedicated funding stream for local Mental Health Services, into housing projects. With mental illness a significant factor in homelessness, now is not the time to cut the County’s funding as the most vulnerable in our communities will suffer. The County will have to seek more bond measures to fill that funding gap because Los Angeles and San Francisco will likely be a higher funding priority than Ventura County, which will mean higher taxes or further reduction in services. Prop 1 also seeks to add substance/alcohol abuse into a new definition of mental illness, so Newsom is adding more illnesses into the system while at the same time reducing the funding available to Ventura County to address these issues.
Voters should have been given three separate propositions, not one catch-all that uses our veterans as a tool to pass a disastrous proposition. Please read the fine print before you sign on the dotted line, and Vote No on Proposition 1.
