PPIC Poll: Which of the Six?
The headlines from the new Public Policy Institute of California poll will emphasize that five of the six measures (everything but 1F, the populist blast on legislative pay, which has a huge lead) on the May 19 special election ballot are in a deep trouble. But a look at the PPIC numbers suggests there’s reason to believe that all six could pass.
Propositions 1D and 1E are in the best position of the five troubled measures. They have leads, though neither measure has 50 percent support. That has a good chance of changing when Republicans learn more about the measures. Right now, Republicans oppose measures to take away spending from these programs. Since Republicans tended to oppose the initiatives (Prop 10 and Prop 63) that created these programs, it’s likely that when they learn the history, enough Republicans will support these measures to get them over the line.
Lessons from the Last California Constitutional Convention
There has been growing talk of convening a constitutional convention to deal with the budget and other California governmental problems. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and would-be governor Gavin Newsom have both endorsed the idea. How a constitutional convention would take shape is a great unknown.
The Bay Area Council, a business group that is spearheading the constitutional convention effort, has noted on their website that a lot of rules would have to be worked out. One is how delegates would be chosen. Three suggestions on the website propose that delegates can be elected, apply for the job, or be chosen like juries are selected.
With so much mystery on the workings of a constitutional convention, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the last time California put on a constitutional convention. That convention took place between September 1878 and March 1879. Delegates met for 127 days (over a 157 day period) although the act establishing the convention declared that, “no compensation shall be allowed delegates after the expiration of one hundred days.”
Orange County Cuts Planned Parenthood
I readily admit that I am old enough to remember the day in 1967 when Ronald Reagan signed a bill as governor of California supporting public funding of abortion for women in poverty.
While in the White House, Reagan assumed the required pro-life positions in order to keep and expand his base on the Christian Right. However, he never had a meeting in the White House with any of the pro-life organizations. They would have to stand outside at the foot of the Washington Monument, often in the rain, while Reagan spoke to them by telephone over a public address system. He was just a couple of blocks away in the Oval Office, but he understood the distance required between church and state.
The alleged Reagan Republican disciples who currently make up the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided a couple of weeks ago to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood; not for abortions, but for sex education programs in both public and private schools. Forty years later and the supes still haven’t gotten the message from their leader.
What Cost of Living Increase?
Today whenever you debate a public employee you will hear them justify their annual raises as if to deny them that would subject them to abject poverty. This is bunk.
First of all, what increase in the cost of living are they referring to?
Are housing prices higher today than they were a year ago? How about rents? How about automobiles? How about gas? How about food? how about computers? How about cell phones?
Are interest rates higher today than a year ago? In fact, they are at never before seen lows rivaling Japans rates during their so-called “lost decade”.
There is no increase in the cost of living that justifies these perpetual increases in public sector labor costs.