California Taxpayer Protection Committee
Posted on 10/15/2006 7:37:39 AM PDT by SmithL
Let's imagine that a state legislator agreed to place provisions in a bill that would directly benefit a businessman who agreed, in return, to write a substantial check to the legislator's campaign fund.
Such a quid pro quo deal would, of course, be illegal bribery that could land both parties in jail. In fact, a number of legislators, legislative aides and lobbyists went to federal prison in the early 1990s after a federal undercover investigation revealed that such pay-to-play arrangements were commonplace in the California Capitol.
That investigation was still unfolding in 1988 when two initiative measures were placed on the statewide ballot with provisions that would funnel bond or tax money directly to private groups that had contributed heavily to the measures' sponsoring organizations.
Gerald Meral, then head of the Planning and Conservation League, is widely credited with inventing this bootstrap practice of writing bond or tax measures to the specifications of those who would put up the money to gather signatures and win voter approval. In 1990, Meral told potential sponsors of an $800 million per year boost in liquor taxes that it would need $3 million to qualify and enact and that those seeking shares of the booty would be expected to contribute either money or signatures, valued at 50 cents each.
"Those wishing to include specific program allocations will be expected to make appropriate contributions to the campaign effort," Meral warned the potential beneficiaries.
What, one might ask, is the difference between paying a legislator to write favorable provisions into a bill and paying a campaign organization to do the same in a bond or tax ballot measure? Quentin Kopp, then a state senator, carried a bill in the early 1990s to prohibit pay-to-play ballot measures. Citing the Kopp law, the state attorney general, Dan Lungren,...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Despite the fact that he was a Democrat, I really liked Quentin Kopp. As far as I could tell, he was the last of a dying breed: an honest Democrat. Yet another example of why term limits were a really bad idea.
And then there is Proposition 84, a direct descendent of Meral's first such exercise, his 1988 measure to issue $776 million in park improvement bonds. Proposition 84 is a little more ambitious; it would authorize $5.4 billion in bonds for parks, watershed improvement and other environmental efforts, in part through grants to nonprofit conservation organizations that have contributed to the multimillion-dollar campaign to qualify and promote the measure. (emphasis added)
With the state budget mired in deficit and a political gridlock over taxes, ever-more tax, bond and spending decisions will be made by voters through the initiative process. Shouldn't those who write the measures be subject to the same conflict-of-interest and bribery laws that apply to legislators? (emphasis added)
I think this is one of the best Dan Walters Columns I've ever seen!!!
So much sleaze to expose--so little time!
My favorite quote about Prop 84 (so far):
"What water bond?" said Assemblyman Doug La Malfa (R-Richvale). "You mean the land acquisition bond?"
I just wish threads and articles like this one would receive more play!!!
California Taxpayer Protection Committee
Excellent! The appropriate back-pressure is building just at the right time, I hope!!!
I hope all the FreeRepublic Athletic Governor S&M's supporters enjoy the binding and chaffing brought on by future CA bondage! I know I won't!!!
There was a great thread last night until the mods shut it down because our favorite visitors couldn't keep the alphabet straight. The most tiresome of the three blind mice moved her alphabet soup to the next thread and then spent the evening publicly demanding an explanation of why she was again warned by the mods. The CaGOP's institutional account took a powder at the first sign of trouble.
I just don't like taking powders, as I'm more used to causing others with lesser confidence and certitude to do that. Does that make me a bully, or just a normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill rough and tumble intimidator??? (grin)
Yes, I saw some of that thread... amusing and amazing, indeed!!!
I see it differently. Nothing was forced on you or I.
Yes, the CaGOP has chosen to abandon their ship for a tactical glory but that hasn't forced anything on us. We've just got to be more selective in our associations.
Yes, this forum currently tolerates political whores of the Republican kind but they aren't forcing anything on us. They are generally perceived as magpies, in the best tradition of Heckel and Jeckel, screeching their whimsical script from a nearby utility pole, careful to remain at a safe flight distance.
The responsibilities of a democracy dictate that the majority rules, but it doesn't dictate that the minority suffer in silence.
Both the curious novice and the political junkie come to FreeRepublic for its factual content; not to be led or chastised by magpies, but to be informed. Partisan whores have few facts. Considered conservatives have many.
I hope all the FreeRepublic Athletic Governor S&M's supporters enjoy.. .
Stick to the facts. Leave the screeching to the Republican magpies. It suits their shrill voices and drive-by style.
I really like that expression!!! I've never considered myself a "compassionate conservative," but rather a "considerate conservative!" I carefully consider all the liberal bogosity, then consider it the BS that it is and discard it before developing further "compassion fatigue!"
You and several others I consider good friends see things differently and I find that healthy!!! It is force to a certain degree, just like the force of clogging my email with spam!!! It's a sort-of-a-force, don'tcha know??? (grin)
I'm patient and have a long memory.
The day will arrive that the liberal, which Republican partisans promoted, will come for these magpies. Then, as always, these shocked partisans will run for the protection of considered conservatives. I'll welcome them in.
When Schwarzenegger and his Democrat allies arrive at my door looking for victims, they'll be treated instead to a mezmorizing specticle. Three aging maidens, shoved out my front door, striped of their pride, their dignity, the cloak of partisan righteousness and the protection of their perch on the ubiquitous utility pole, begging for mercy on the front stoop as they face the whim of the liberal mob.
The screeching and lamentations of these newly reformed whores will give me ample opportunity to stroll out to a faucet and drench the enthusiasm of the whole kit and caboodle with a water hose. There is nothing so disarming as cold water in the early spring soaking an Armini suit or a Cuban cigar.
You da man!!! (grin)(waitin for dem "lamentations!" Yes sirree!!!)
I'd drive all the way to Fresno just to see that come to pass!!!
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