What Now for Dems’ Redistricting Fight?
When it comes to redistricting, $2.7 million may trump $280,000.
The $2.7 million is what Charles Munger, a Palo Alto Republican, has anted up to qualify a “Son of Prop. 11” redistricting measure for the November ballot.
The initiative is simple enough. It allows the Citizens Redistricting Commission created by the 2008 initiative to also draw the lines for California’s congressional districts after this year’s census.
The $280,000, on the other hand, is what Democratic politicians and their allies have put aside for a November initiative that would kill Prop. 11 entirely, putting redistricting back in the hands of the Democrat-run Legislature.
Most of that money comes from California Democrats who are either in Congress or who want to be in Congress – that would be Karen Bass, who has given $50,000 to the initiative. But under Prop. 11, only legislative districts will be redrawn by the committee. Munger’s measure, though, would take redistricting out of the comforting hands of the Legislature and give it to a multi-partisan commission that won’t care nearly so much about putting more California Democrats in Congress.
Fixing AB 32 Will Require Real Action, Not More Delay
The findings announced yesterday by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor on AB 32’s impact on unemployment in California confirmed what many of us have known for a long time – the regulations imposed by AB 32 will cause California to lose more jobs. With California facing its worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, we don’t have the luxury of a wait-and-see approach to AB 32, the greenhouse gas law that will smother job creation, raise costs for consumers, and destroy businesses across our state. It’s time for decisive action to correct AB 32, a law that will only make it harder for California families to make ends meet.
That’s why I support the California Jobs Initiative. This initiative, which is currently seeking signatures to qualify for the ballot, will stop all rulemaking and regulation under AB 32 until California’s unemployment rate declines to the level it was when AB 32 was adopted. I am proud to be the only candidate for governor that has endorsed this initiative and called for AB 32 to be completely halted until our economy is back on track and Californians are back to work.
Maybe We’re Furloughing the Wrong State Workers
In pushing a bill to prevent furloughs for nearly 80,000 state workers, Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg argued a number of furloughs were counter productive. He pointed particularly to the tax collectors under the Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board. According to a report, Steinberg argued that the furlough savings of $65 million in salary paid to these employees was more than offset by the loss of $465 million in unpaid taxes these workers would collect if they were on the job.
I don’t know how this calculation was made. Seems odd, though. When these workers were working full time was all that uncollected tax revenue accounted for? With rates of return described by Steinberg, we should offer overtime to the tax collectors. At that rate, they could probably collect enough revenue to solve the budget deficit in no time.
But let’s be less cynical. Let’s accept Senator Steinberg’s assertion that furloughs limit productive workers from doing the jobs they are supposed to do in improving the difficult condition of the state.
California’s advantage
Amid the wreckage of California’s economy and our diminishing competitiveness, one California character trait abides: innovation and the prospect of cashing in on it.
According to a survey by the research firm VentureSource, fully 33 of the top 50 venture capital-backed firms (two-thirds), and 15 of the top 20, are located in California, a striking reminder that intellectual capital and innovation start right here. And since many of these firms are spinning off from research undertaken at our great universities, this drives home the importance of investing in a strong public university system for the future health of our economy.
The other take-away: only three of the 33 California firms are involved in what’s known as “clean tech.” In fact, more venture-backed firms were involved in health care than any other sector except technology. California has been a leader in health care innovation for decades, spinning off jobs and advancing medical treatments. But the equipment used to produce DNA sequencers, implantable devices for neurological disorders, or innovative orthopedic products (to name the technologies from just three of these top venture-backed firms) would not qualify for the proposed tax incentives aimed at the favored green sector.
Arnold’s Third Term
Californians, meet your next governor.
Let’s call him Jerry Schwarzenegger.
As former California Gov. Jerry Brown officially rolled out his 2010 campaign for governor this week, he was confronted by questions about how a new Brown term in the stateh ouse might be different than his first, an entertaining if unfocused eight-year stretch from 1975 to 1983.
But in trying to reassure voters that he’s learned lessons, Brown looked and sounded like an older, Zen version of the unpopular incumbent, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who can’t run for re-election because of term limits.