As a California taxpayer, you pay for public services. No matter how you vote, it’s reasonable to expect your money to be spent effectively to benefit the most people.

Under the U.S. Constitution, state governments are primarily responsible for delivering domestic services including schools, transit systems, safe drinking water, police and fire protection that are critical to jobs, public health, and public safety. Neither the federal government nor charities come close to providing the level of domestic services delivered by state governments.

In California, this means every year our state government and its leaders:

  • Send 9 million students to school in our public K-university education system
  • Pass laws affecting the jobs, wages and economic prospects of 20 million workers and the health and safety of 40 million residents
  • Provide health insurance to 13 million Californians
  • Determine the size of prison populations, the extent of social safety nets, the number of public parks and recreation centers, the quality of our environment, the funding and maintenance of public transportation systems, and the state of our infrastructure
  • Levy more than $200 billion in taxes and fees and direct the spending of more than $630 billion including federal funds
  • Award tens of billions of dollars in salaries and retirement promises to government employees
  • Select the members of hundreds of state boards and commissions
  • Invest hundreds of billions of dollars to protect future budgets and taxpayers from paying more to meet state obligations
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California

Mission

Our mission is to be a permanent counter to special interest influence in the California State Legislature and on the statewide ballot. We block special-interest serving legislation and initiatives while promoting legislation and reforms that will increase the quality of public services at reasonable cost to taxpayers.

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