Notes from the Week that Was
COURT SAYS BALLOT MEASURE SUMMARIES MUST BE IMPARTIAL
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Court of Appeal
victory yesterday says the legislature cannot dictate the ballot label, title
and official summary. The legislature did just that for the High Speed Rail
bonds that narrowly passed in 2008.
HJTA president, Jon Coupal, said in a release, "the Court’s ruling is a stinging rebuke of the
California Legislature for manipulating voters by substituting the proponent’s
advocacy for what is supposed to be a neutral summary by an impartial third
party."
While the decision is a victory
for California voters, the ruling begs the question about the partisan office
of Attorney General being an impartial third party. The AG is assigned the task
of writing the impartial ballot label, title and summary. Over the years,
attorney generals from both parties have been accused of political maneuvering
in drawing up ballot information.
Perhaps it is time to turn the
task of writing impartial ballot titles and summaries over to a non-partisan outfit
like the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
They Don’t Have Much Time Left to Think Long
Pop quiz: What is the meaning of the following set of
numbers?
63, 62, 58, 56, 76, 68, 56, 90, 57, 67, 55, 67, 68, 77
Those are the ages of the members of the Think Long
Committee,
the group convened by famously homeless billionaire Nicolas Berggruen to come
up with systemic fixes for California’s governmental dysfunction.
For those who haven’t been
following it, the Think Long Committee – let’s call it the TLC — is the most
promising entity in the reform movement. Berggruen is an expert in
constitutions with a global outlook and a strong sense that California’s system
is broken and needs to be redesigned.
The Koch Kerfuffle
Super Bowl Week
kicks off this weekend as NFL all-stars gather in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl game
on Sunday. But there is another all-star
game of sorts happening near Palm Springs this weekend. This one is not about football. But it is about
America’s other great passion-politics.
According to news
accounts in the New York Times, Politico and the Desert Sun, Koch Industries is
hosting its annual conference that has been dubbed by a representative of the
liberal Courage Campaign of California, a vehement opponent of the conference,
as "insidious."
Now I have heard of
Koch Industries and the two brothers who run this highly successful
multi-faceted company but to be honest I hadn’t heard of their conference
before this year. From the sounds of things they do attract an all-star line-up
of speakers that includes leaders from government, academia and industry many
of them conservatives and libertarians. Sounds like a good conference from what
I have read.
Record in 2010 for Calif. Companies Departing or Diverting Capital
In the seven weeks since the last report, another 11 companies have left California completely or re-directed substantial capital to build facilities out of state that in an earlier era would have been built here. The number in today’s list is lower than the usual four-per-week average and I believe it’s because companies shy away from making such announcements during the end-of-year holiday season.
The names of the companies and justifications for listing them appear in the list below, which builds upon the Dec. 6, 2010 entry regarding 193 companies here (which in turn builds on previous lists).
In brief:
Company total for 12 months of 2010: 204
Company total for all of 2009: 51