As with all my election guides, this assumes you’ve at least read the summary. I don’t want to summarize it for you but just provide a short summary of my arguments.

Prop 13 – Yes. This is one of those “closing the donut hole” laws. They exempt certain types of earthquake repairs from triggering property value reassessments but not others and this law fixes it so that all earthquake repairs are exempt.

Prop 14 – No. It’s great that you can vote for any party’s primary. It’s great that candidates are not required to list their party, but this prop has a glaring flaw – only two candidates can be selected between and there will be no write-ins. I double-checked to see if this wasn’t just hype by the opposition, but the text clearly states that it eliminates the write-ins. What we need is clean elections and a better system, like approval/disapproval or instant runoff. Why do no propositions to this effect end up on our ballots?

Prop 15 – Yes… This proposition isn’t perfect either. It should have only lifted the ban on public funds provided the funds come from the pool generated from lobbyist fees. Given that omission, I can only offer a timid support of this law on the theory that we’re never going to get true election reform on the ballot and this is the closest we’ll get anytime soon. Corporations and unions run politics and it shouldn’t be so. Ideally, public funds shouldn’t be part of it either.

Prop 16 – No. Whether or not you think local governments should get into the electricity business, voters should have a say. That’s why I oppose this law. I don’t think a 2/3rds vote is reasonable. Also keep in mind that “private” utility providers benefit just as much as state-run from regional monopolies (government granted and “natural”) so I regard the investor owned concerns to be a type of government-sponsored utility that voters have less control over. As the technology improves, we can evolve away from natural energy monopolies and have real competition – it happened with telephone service. Also note that wind, solar is exempted only if it’s 100% of the source. That’s unrealistic and stupid. We need to tax environmental degradation and, beyond that, allow real free-market competition on energy. We don’t need this corporatist neo-mercantilist prop. Pass!

Prop 17 – Yes. There are flaws, however. I read the text of the law (what will be added/deleted) and I definitely support insurance companies being able to take into account things that are going to cost them money so there’s incentive to drop prices. There should be an incentive to continuously have auto insurance as long as you have a car (read on for why I italicized this part of the sentence). For me, I wasn’t able to put me and my wife on the same insurance because it would be more expensive. Yes, that’s right. The lady at AAA couldn’t figure out why their estimate was higher than I pay, but it’s obvious – State Farm is giving me a long-time customer discount.

For this law to be more attractive, it should require a grace period of at least 30 days (in practice, auto insurance companies usually do anyway, but just to make sure) before insurance is to be considered lapsed and allow for lapses if it’s where the person simply didn’t own a car. Choosing to break the law and drive uninsured is irresponsible, but people who chose to not have cars for a while (or have no choice but to do so) shouldn’t be additionally penalized.