A sworn declaration by the controller of the California Teachers Association says the CTA has already spent all of the three year, $60 / member surcharge it just started collecting to oppose the November 2005 initiatives:

4. CTA has already spent on the initiative campaign the equivalent of what the temporary dues increase would bring in over three years.

In fact, the CTA is quite literally going into debt to fight the initiatives:

5: CTA is in the process of negotiating a necessary $40m line of credit. The proposed terms for the new line of credit call for the income stream from the $60 dues increase, together with the CTA’s other ongoing income, to pay back the principal and interest. …

But what if Prop 75 passes? The CTA will have to get approval from individual members before using their dues for political purposes. In other states, similar measures have resulted in about 80% of members withholding the political ‘contribution’ portion of their dues. Come December, the CTA could have much less money available for political purposes.

Since they’re spending more than the $60 per member per year the surcharge will bring in, the plan is to repay their loan with a) the surcharge, and b) a portion of their regular dues income. But if 75 passes and the CTA’s discretionary political fund takes a huge hit, will b) be insufficient to repay the loan in full?* Is the CTA taking a large, bet-the-company gamble that it will defeat Prop 75?

It’s possible that repaying the debt wouldn’t be considered a political contribution — although that seems contrary to the intent of the initiative, and common sense. If I’m a CTA member who disagrees with its position on Prop 75 and the other November initiatives, why should my dues in 2006 and forward be used to dig the CTA out of the hole it dug fighting them?

We’re going to try to find some answers. But in the meantime, it sounds like whoever is loaning the CTA $40m had better be very careful about how they’re going to get repaid.

—
H/T: Dan Weintraub at the Sacramento Bee’s California Insider

* We’re assuming that the $60 / member surcharge can’t be opted out of — but we don’t know that.

Technorati Tags: California initiatives, initiatives, proposition 75

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 at 1:38 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under (Un)education, 2005 Initiatives, California Schemin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.