Cato’s John Samples and CCP Academic Advisor Jeffrey Milyo show the puffery in California Prop. 89.

Read “Promises about Prop. 89 all a dream” in yesterday’s San Jose Mercury News.

According to Milyo and Samples, “Proposition 89 is a bald-faced attempt to achieve by regulatory fiat what it would be patently unconstitutional to enact in law: a direct prohibition on private campaign contributions.”

Remarkably, Prop. 89’s sponsors fear asking the public to pay for public financing, and would choose instead to place the burden on “corporations and financial institutions.”  But Samples and Milyo warn that California voters should not be fooled.  “Proposition 89 does impose new taxes on the average Californian, even though, at first blush, it does not appear to; [possibly to the tune of] $140 million a year.”