Believe it or not, I've wondered about this ...

Crooks and Liars has an interesting piece today, tracing California's current fiscal woes back to 1978's passage of Proposition 13.

Here in Wisconsin we have our own version, although ours is not part of the state constitution ... yet. The other thing unique about our revenue caps that supposedly give tax relief to property owners, is that they specifically target K-12 public school districts. Our then-Governor Tommy Thompson (remember Tommy? He ran for the Republican nomination in the last presidential election) had a personal vendetta against teachers. He gave us the revenue caps and took away our right to bargain fair contracts, two gifts that have kept on giving for the last 16 years.