SEIU makes statement of principles with May 19 endorsements:

You'd think that our opposition to years of budget "solutions" that only worsen the problem - the massive and unrelenting cuts to public services; the over-reliance on borrowing and accounting tricks; the refusal to consider serious structural reform of the budget process; the ever-increasing tax burdens on the poor, sick and elderly while corporations keep getting tax breaks; the way the majority of lawmakers keep caving in to the blackmail of a few ... where were we? ... Oh yeah. You'd think all this would make us want to vote No on the whole slate of special election ballot measures like we did in the 2005 special election.

But it doesn't. Beneath the apparent contradictoriness of the SEIU position is in fact a consistent stance based on principles we've always held close:

Prop. 1A: NO
We've been focusing our coverage and campaign efforts on defeating Prop. 1A because it's the keystone of the arch and without it, the whole budget deal collapses. This measure will result in drastically reduced funding for all of the vital public services SEIU members both provide and rely upon at state, county, and city levels.

In good years and bad it drains money from the General Fund into a slush fund controlled by the governor. It caps funding of public services at today's impossibly substandard levels, then adds insult to injury by making it nearly impossible to restore funding even in good years. The result: ever-increasing deficits and service cuts even after we've plugged the current $42 billion hole.

Prop. 1B: YES
Prop. 1B doesn't pass unless Prop 1A passes, but we're supporting it to uphold an important principle - the same principle behind our opposition to Props. 1D and 1E: namely, that the governor can't keep raiding voter-approved funding in place of finding real solutions. Prop. 1B replaces billions of dollars the governor has already taken from Prop. 98 school funding guarantees. Our endorsement means we want that money replaced; it should never have been taken.

Prop. 1C: YES
This measure to change and modernize the state's underperforming lottery helps the state budget situation with $5 billion in potential revenue.

Prop. 1D: NO
This measure takes $600 million from voter approved funds for children’s health services in 2009-10 to plug the budget hole and hundreds of millions more in future years.

Prop. 1E: NO
Our opposition means the same as our support for 1B: Hands off the money reserved for critical public services - this time, health care. Prop. 1D slices $600 million off Prop. 10 guarantees for children's health programs. Prop. 1E raids Prop. 63 funding guarantees for mental health services to the tune of $460 million over two years.
Education, mental health services, children's health services. The governor and legislators aren't just raiding budgets. They're raiding our values.

Prop. 1F: No Position
This measure stops legislators from getting pay raises in deficit years. That's nice, but it does nothing to solve the real problems and it's not even as strong as 2004's union-backed Proposition 56, which would actually have docked their pay as well as reduced the requirement to pass a budget from 2/3 to 55 percent. Had Prop. 56 passed, it's unlikely we'd even be in the current mess.