Posted on 03/09/2005 9:07:24 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Most of those 80-some voter initiatives that are either pending at the attorney general's office or already cleared for signature collection will never make it to the ballot. There's not enough money. Some are near-duplicate versions of the same measure; others are just gleams in the eye of wannabes with the $200 needed to file - initiative versions of the 135 people who ran for governor in the 2003 recall. But some are chess pieces in what may be the biggest and most complicated game of political chicken in California history. If Hiram Johnson and the California Progressives who wrote the initiative, referendum and recall into the state constitution had ever been suspected of planning anything as goofy as this, they would have been run out of Sacramento on a rail. This is the initiative process on steroids.
None of these measures originated with "the people" in whose name Arnold Schwarzenegger has been Hummering around. Few would qualify, much less pass, without the big bucks that deep-pockets interest groups pony up.
And that's what initiative chicken is all about. The governor is flying around the country to raise the $50 million he promises (or threatens) to get to run his reform campaign. He's hoping to raise it all from big business interests - a lot of them, in the words of a staffer working for a Sacramento Democrat, eager to join "Brand Arnold." On the other side are the teachers, cops, firefighters and other public employee unions targeted by the governor's proposed pension overhaul and spending caps and the politicians who don't want to give up their safe legislative and congressional seats.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
He hasn't endorsed a spending measure; both the Deficit Reduction Act (John Campbell) and the Live Within Our Means (Zaremberg) spending measures haven't even cleared the AG's office for signature. He abandoned his own redistricting plan and reverted to Ted Costa's. Now it looks like there are flaws in the language of the Pension initiative. What Education initiative has he endorsed? Is it cleared for signature?
So far, the "year of reform" looks like a year of media hype and disorganization.
From the column: The initiative overhauling the state's public employee pension system is stuck in a wording mess that, in the attorney general's analysis (denied by the backers), denies death benefits to the survivors of cops and firefighters killed on the job, a great example of how, in the absence of a deliberative process, initiatives go awry. In the course of his Hummer happening last week, the governor endorsed Ted Costa's convoluted reapportionment reform, not the proposal by Assembly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (now revised from its unworkable first version) that was supposed to reflect the governor's wishes. In addition, the governor's loudly proclaimed intention to "blow up the boxes" of state government by abolishing some 88 boards and commissions as recommended by a team of state bureaucrats has been quietly abandoned. At this point it's hardly clear what initiatives the governor really will support. His reform campaign has already shrunk. The proclaimed move to impose merit pay on teachers seems to have been forgotten, and the proposal to lengthen the time for teachers to get tenure has been reduced from 10 years to five. (It's now an unrealistic two years.)
Hiram Johnson should have been run out on a rail. These are the entirely predictable consequences of direct democracy, from which the founders of this nation hoped to protect us. Had we remained stuck with the crooked legislators, the people would have realized what needed fixing and got it done.
The aphorism, "We get the government we deserve," could never be more true than it is today in California.
February 28, 2005I guess they are still "considering" them, because neither one of these initiatives appears to even have been filed. They are not listed on the Secretary of State website tracking initiative status, at least not under these names.
Committee Announces Support for Initial Reforms
Additional reform measures still being consideredSACRAMENTO - Citizens to Save California (CSC) announced today that the committee has amended its filing with the California Secretary of State’s office, modifying the committee’s status from a general purpose committee to a primarily formed committee.
The filing change marks the committee’s decision to support two important reform initiatives – the Fair and Responsible Retirement Act and the Put the Kids First Act. As soon as the committee receives title and summary, CSC will take these petitions to the people and ask for their support. The committee will continue to consider other reform measures that will put California’s economy back on track.
“These two initiatives are an important part of reforming California and making it the Golden State again,” said Joel Fox, co-chair of CSC. “Ensuring California’s kids get a quality education and that our retirement system doesn’t bankrupt local communities are top priorities of this committee.”
The Put Kids First Act will help ensure our kids get the best education and the best teachers possible. And the Fair and Responsible Retirement Act will provide stability to California’s out-of-control pension system.
Of course not, they never do. That's just one thing that's wrong about initiatives.
He hasn't endorsed a spending measure; both the Deficit Reduction Act (John Campbell) and the Live Within Our Means (Zaremberg) spending measures haven't even cleared the AG's office for signature.
To be fair to Arnold, Lockyer has every reason to drag his feet here, seeing as he fancies himself being governor someday.
He abandoned his own redistricting plan and reverted to Ted Costa's.
Probably a good idea, but there are better proposals than either.
Now it looks like there are flaws in the language of the Pension initiative.
There always is. That's why we need to dump the initiative process and fix the legislature.
What Education initiative has he endorsed? Is it cleared for signature?
Beats me.
If you think the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Round Table or the Citizens to Save California are fighting the Liberals, perhaps you should look more closely at who they are.
They include Eli Broad and his KB Home, a huge Democrat supporter; Catellus, a company largely controlled by Diane Feinstein's husband; Levi Strauss, long known for its liberal causes; etc.
There are more than two sides to these issues. From what I see, the CBRT is a far cry from representing the taxpaying populace.
However if it wasn't for special interest groups having too much sway with the CA legislature, these initiatives wouldn't be necessary.
These initiatives are brought to you BY special interests!
It's ok for me to use the term "type cast!" Afterall, Hollyweird is running CA these days and I just want to fit right in!!! Phhhhhht!!!
If your position always stays the same, we could use cast type.
Speaking of the SNC, I noticed yesterday they lost one of the leaders:
Associated Press, March 8, 2005SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. Dennis Machida, who led the California Tahoe Conservancy since 1985 has died of a heart attack while speaking at a climate research conference in Montana.
Machida, who was 58, helped establish the conservancy group in South Lake Tahoe as assistant secretary for legal affairs with the California Resources Agency.
Under his leadership, the agency authorized more than 290 (m) million dollars in public money to acquire 74-hundred acres of sensitive land on the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin and to fund nearly 600 water quality, wildlife habitat, public access and recreation projects.
Machida was also instrumental in the establishment of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law last September. The mission of the organization is to fund environmental preservation projects for 25 million acres in the Sierra Nevada stretching from the Oregon line to north of Bakersfield.
He died on Friday.
Interesting how the more they set that land aside the greener that lake gets.
Young forests consume nitrogen. Old forests release it from rotting vegetation.
The amount of nitrogen that would be released from an old forest would WILDLY exceed what is released now from cabins in the basin.
I've heard your theory before. I think you are right. My logic and gut tells me you are. I trust my intuition.
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