…California just voted on a ballot measure, called Proposition 30, which proposed to increase sales and income taxes to be allocated to public schools.

An amazing 54 percent of Californians voted to pass the measure, but hold onto your seats, because Berkeley actually voted 90 percent approval of the tax hikes.

As much as Johnson County citizens love their public schools, we never have gotten anywhere near 90 percent on a vote to increase taxes for schools.

That California citizens voted overwhelmingly to increase their taxes is a complete turnaround from recent history. In 1978, California voters passed the infamous Proposition 13, which put a lid on property taxes and, thus, starved their public schools. And for years California has repeatedly turned down tax increases for public schools.

The schools have been decimated and what once was a premiere school system is now one of the worst in the nation.

Kansas, meanwhile, may be in the beginnings of the California tax-cut phenomenon…

www.kansascity.com/2013/04/02/4158112/is-kansas-following-california.html