The state treasurer of hopelessly spendthrift California is planning to sell"bond anticipation notes" to finance a multibillion dollar stem cell research plan recently approved by the voters. The bonds can only be repaid, however, if the state is able to win court challenges that would declare them legal.

According to The San Diego Union Tribune, the state treasurer is promoting bond anticipation notes as"legally sound" and"unprecedented." They are neither.

These bonds clearly contravene the California constitutional requirement that voters approve any measure raising debt by more than $300,000.

Also, as I note in Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression, Chicago used so-called"tax anticipation warrants" during the early 1930s. Chicago's politicians at the time needed funds because of tax shortfalls partly caused by a successful tax strike led by the Association of Real Estate Taxpayers.