For local governments still sporting the budgetary scars of the last “once in a generation” recession, this downturn is at once familiar — forcing elected leaders to cut, furlough and delay — and entirely new. Never before in state history has so much economic activity ground to a halt so quickly.
As the campaign conceded on Wednesday, the first statewide school bond to go down to defeat in two decades went out, not with a bang, but with a tweet.
Last October, when he signed the legislation that placed Proposition 13 on the ballot, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a prediction: “Voters will approve this bond, because voters historically approve school bonds.” Newsom and supporters, who spent millions of dollars campaigning for a statewide ballot measure with no organized opposition, billed Prop. 13 as a critical […]