It is pretty majestic...
Posted on 08/23/2004 5:52:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - The Senate on Monday approved creation of a state conservancy to protect the majestic Sierra Nevada, but another environmental bill, which would ban smoking on state beaches, stalled as lawmakers began the last days of their 2004 session.
The conservancy bill, by Assemblymen Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, and John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, cleared the Senate on a 21-14 vote and was returned to the Assembly, which approved a somewhat different version of the legislation in May.
If the Assembly adopts the Senate changes, the legislation will go to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The beach-smoking bill, by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, fell eight votes short of the bare majority needed for approval on a first roll call, but supporters delayed announcement of the vote to give them time to lobby for more support.
The deadline for action on most bills is Aug. 31, but lawmakers hope to wrap up their 2004 session by Friday to allow Republican legislators to attend the GOP national convention next week in New York.
Leslie and Laird's legislation would create a state conservancy headed by a 13-member board that would be able to buy conservation easements and make grants and loans to other public agencies, nonprofit organizations and Indian tribes for a variety of activities, including protecting ranch land and open space and promoting recreation and tourism, in the Sierra Nevada.
The Sierra conservancy would join eight others, including two that already cover parts of the Sierra or Sierra foothills - the California Tahoe Conservancy and the San Joaquin River Conservancy.
The bill's supporters stressed that the conservancy wouldn't be a land-use regulatory body and would have local input from six Sierra Nevada county supervisors on its board.
"We have conservancies around the state that are designed to protect sensitive areas and serve them," said Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford. "They are not designed in any way to interfere with private property rights. They don't take property; they work out arrangements with willing sellers of property."
But Sen. Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, warned that a Sierra conservancy could become something "we who live in the Sierra Nevada will come to regret."
"While today it may protect the rights of private property owners, these things have a way of becoming something else in fact," he said. "I'm very apprehensive about it."
The beach-smoking bill would bar smoking on the sand at state beaches, but allow it in parking lots and campgrounds, unless the local government with jurisdiction over the beach wanted stronger or weaker restrictions.
Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said the bill was an attempt to protect people "who don't want smoke blown in their face" and to "cut down the immense cost of cleaning up our beaches."
Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-La Mesa, said there already is a $1,000 fine for littering. The bill would authorize a $100 fine for smoking. But Kuehl said the littering fine is rarely imposed.
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On the Net: Read the bills, AB1583 and AB2600, at www.senate.ca.gov
But Sen. Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, warned that a Sierra conservancy could become something "we who live in the Sierra Nevada will come to regret."
'willing sellers"
fyi
Byron Sher is the same state senator who carried the Yuba River Conservancy bill for a prior Nevada County Supervisor- Who lost big in the last election- because there was no state Senator in the immediate area of the Yuba River/Nevada County who would touch it. Sher lives a LONG way from the land that he is working so hard to control. He is a skunk IMO.
Rico Oller is right- The residents of the Sierra Nevada range will rue the day this bill passes and gets signed. It is a direct attack on private property rights.
It is pretty majestic...
“The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body of forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on.” - William Z. Foster, National Chairman of the Communist Party, restating point one of the Communist Manifesto in 1932, “The abolition of private property.”
I'll have to ping this tomorrow. I'm not on the right hard drive.
Note who was the first one pinged to this thread.
Alaska want's to develop oil on it's own land...oops, federal land...and a bunch of enviroquacks in Oregon can prevent them. Alaskan's can't buy land, develop land...you know where it's going.
Funny, sounds like the commies want to steal our land, and the nazis want us to quit smoking.
(This is a joke) "America is at that awkward stage - it's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
Decisions decisions.
No problemo, I need to link this into a couple other threads too.. :-)
I'm pooped out and about to plop as I sit here watching the Olympics.
Note who was the first one pinged to this thread.
lol..
I forgot to ping the rest of the FoRest folks tho,,
I'm slipping. I need a vacation ... like Rush, except in hawaii or Tahiti. ;-)
RED ALERT: Socialist agenda being pushed through the California Legislature
Aw, com'on! He's nothing, if not an evil snake!!!
"Vee haf ways ov making yew very, VERY villing sellers!"
I have not always admired Rico Oller and his tactics in the past, but he sure has out-shined the guy I used to admire that Rico swaped seats with to become State Senator!!!
My hat's off to him on this one. Even though Leslie's name is on the bill as co-author, he was too ashamed or cowardly to even vote publicly on it. He'll probably have a vote registered after all the publicity dies down. Of course he thought the Recall was a joke, till Arnold jumped in from left field, bringing this crappy CONservancy with him.
And they pass AB 2631 in order to regulate you land use so you become a willing seller.
BTTT!!!!!!
The fact is that the politicians running this don't have voters in the mountain areas, but they do have them on the beaches.
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