Monthly Archive for California
California Stories Posted in May 2008
Obscure Public Agency Funding Campaigns
Category: Eminent Domain · State: California · Source: California Republic
Most informed voters are aware that there are only two measures on the statewide ballot next week. Prop 98 is supported by the California Farm Bureau Federation, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, National Federation of Independent Business, the California Association of Realtors and a host of other interests seeking to preserve and defend property rights in California. The other measure, Prop 99, was put on the ballot through funding almost exclusively through associations of government entities -- the lion's share from the League of California Cities. The irony in this initiative battle is that the government interests have repeatedly accused the property rights interests of having a "hidden agenda" simply by including a phase out of rent regulations along with eminent domain reform. Rather than hidden, the provisions dealing with price controls on property are prominent and appear near the very beginning of the measure. Indeed, references to these provisions are replete through the ballot pamphlet.
Group Seeks Delay In Gay Marriage Ruling
Category: Marriage · State: California · Source: NBC 11
A group opposed to same-sex marriage asked the California Supreme Court to delay the effect of its historic marriage ruling until after a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment in November. The Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund argued in its request for a stay that allowing gay and lesbian weddings before November "risks legal havoc" because the amendment, if approved, would overturn the court's ruling.
Dan Walters: Is Initiative Process the Cause or Result of State's Malaise?
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: California · Source: Sacramento Bee
The old philosophical argument over whether the chicken or the egg first emerged from the primordial ooze has a political counterpart in California's circular debate over the initiative process. Is directly presenting proposed laws and constitutional amendments to voters a safety valve by which they can do what the Legislature is unwilling or unable to do, the cause of the Capitol's endemic inability to function effectively, or, perhaps, both a symptom of our political malaise and a cure that worsens the disease? It's been nearly a century since reformist Gov. Hiram Johnson and the Legislature adopted the initiative and other reforms to break the political stranglehold of the Southern Pacific Railroad - dubbed "The Octopus" in a muckraking novel of the era. But the initiative's use as a major policy tool is of much more recent vintage, dating from the enactment of Proposition 13, the landmark property tax limit measure, 30 years ago next month.
Steve Wiegand: Fat Chance of Reforming Initiative Process
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: California · Source: Sacramento Bee
One of the most admirable traits of political reformers is their earnest optimism. I thought of this last week, when Bob Stern dropped by the office. Stern is the president of the Center for Governmental Studies, which is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, nonpartisan outfit that does research into various governmental and political issues and recommends ways to make them better. An attorney by trade, Stern was one of the guiding lights behind California's Political Reform Act of 1974 and was a longtime consigliere to the Fair Political Practices Commission. In other words, he knows something about the reform racket. Anyway, he was making the rounds of Capitol press corps offices, dropping off copies of a new 402-page tome called "Democracy by Initiative: Shaping California's Fourth Branch of Government."
Other Monthly Archives for California
- May 2008 (4)