Poor Political Advertising

Yes, I know there's a lot of deliberately bad, or just plain bad political ads out there.  The "YES" ads for California Prop 16 reach especially high levels of deceit.  I'm both impressed and dismayed. 

Here I single out one local group's campaign literature in particular, even though it's a cause I support!  San Mateo County will offer up Proposition E.  In a nutshell, it is a $150/year parcel tax on residents of the Cabrillo Unified School District to support local schools.  I'm not big on taxes, but a small parcel tax to support local schools seems well worth it.

One major support group for E is Friends of Cabrillo Unified Schools. (FOCUS)  My complaint is, if you look through that web site, it barely mentions the $150 parcel tax!  Well, if you search on "tax", you do pick up one page, "Resources", which does have the word tax, which links to the fact sheet, which details the $150 tax.  So, technically you can find the info, they just make it really hard.

I just received a nice printed flyer in the mail from FOCUS, and nowhere does it mention the word tax!  It does say that "An exemption is available for senior citizen homeowners", which implies to careful readers that this involves a parcel tax.  But no direct reference.  I'm really sad to see this borderline deception - it may tilt me to vote against this measure that normally I'd support..

Why can't we have an honest and forthright discussion that treats voters as adults?  Say that this is a parcel tax, it is small, it all goes to support local schools, there are fiscal protections, and ask people to support it.

Here's a discussion forum in the local paper about the measure.