Money Flows for PG&E Power Initiative
If money talks in politics, it positively shouts when it comes to California initiative campaigns.
Take, for example, the ongoing effort to qualify a ballot measure that would require a two-thirds vote before local governments could spend the first nickel to get into the public power business.
The effort is being run by a group with the populist-friendly name of “Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote,” although the required disclaimer adds that it has “major funding from Pacific Gas & Electric, a coalition of taxpayers, environmentalists, renewable energy, business and labor.”
Actually, that wide-ranging coalition of disparate interests is pretty much invisible, since every dollar of the $3.5 million that’s flowed into the effort so far comes from PG&E.
And where has the cash gone? Well, at least $1.5 million has been used to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to qualify a constitutional amendment for the ballot, either for the June 2010 primary or the November 2010 general election.
The Fourth Kind … of Government
The movie The Fourth Kind, now in theaters, refers to the fourth level of interaction with extraterrestrials. We are told by the movie promotions the first kind is sightings, the second kind is evidence, and the third kind is contact. The fourth kind is abduction.
There appears to be a Fourth Kind of government entity that the people of California are dealing with themselves. The familiar first three kinds of government are federal, state and local. The fourth kind is the people through the initiative process.
A few might even say the initiative process is an abduction of government.
The people of California have not felt that way — at least not yet. Polls in the past have revealed that about 75% of those polled support the initiative process. Ironically, that number 75 is nearly the total of initiatives that have been filed with the Attorney General for title and summary during this election cycle.
Legalize It: Taxing Legal Marijuana Would Add $1 Billion Per Year to California’s Budget
Back during the depths of this economic mess, I wrote a piece here advocating legalizing and taxing marijuana as an answer to California’s unbalanced budget nightmare. Since then, my arguments have appeared too many places to count and much has occurred to what they used to call ‘Sin Taxes,’ as a route to getting our states back in the black.
If marijuana were simply legalized in California, and taxed at $50 per ounce, let’s say 10% of retail price (give or take), it would add $1 Billion per year to California’s budget – I didn’t make that up; that’s what a recent study has concluded. We don’t have the luxury of ignoring this any more.
The time and scarce resources of our court system, law enforcement, and prison system are all hugely consumed and negatively affected by keeping marijuana technically illegal in California. I say ‘technically illegal,’ because the medical marijuana legislative scheme has worked well in this state since it was enacted in the mid-90’s and it has spawned some 12 or 13 other states’ schemes, all working fairly well in these days when nothing associated with government (or finance) seems to work well, or at all for that matter.
Why Not California #10 – Colorado gets solar manufacturer
Last week, German-based SMA Solar Technology announced it would open a manufacturing facility in Colorado, spend approximately $22 million on it’s first non-European site, and hire 300 to 700 Denver workers starting in 2010. It should be noted that Colorado is listed among the top five states to do business according to Forbes magazine and CNBC.
It was rumored that many states were in the running for SMA — a company that makes components that integrate residential solar panels with electrical grids. For a state with a “Million solar roofs” policy, I’d like to know what California did to court this company. Why didn’t they receive the same treatment as Tesla motors with a sales tax exemption on capital equipment or something similar to attract their impressive operation?
Colorado has now landed at least 300 high paying manufacturing jobs that will contribute to its growth and emergence from the national recession, while California continues to pass environmental policies on the notion — not economic analysis or proof — that the environmental frontier exclusively creates jobs and helps the economy.