Can Republicans hold one-third of the legislature?
My friend, colleague and former boss Doug Jeffe opines in the Friday Fox and Hounds that the Republicans should be reasonable on the tax vote because this may be the last time they have one third in the legislature, and thus the ability to affect policy. Doug seems to think the Democrats are pretty much guaranteed to increase their numbers through redistricting.
While it is certainly possible that the Republicans could blow their one third of the legislature (they might, for example, hire Mike Murphy, late of the Whitman campaign, as their chief strategist), Doug would do well to remember Lincoln’s sage advice: the hen is the wisest of all creatures for it does not cackle until the egg is laid.
Now that we have the final redistricting population figures, and in fact this egg might not be laid at all. Given that the Citizens Redistricting Commission will draw the lines and they will have to follow strict criteria, here’s what we know for sure:
Defending Prop 13
In the long-standing tradition of pointing at Proposition 13 as the cause for all the ills that befall California, Joe Mathews and Mark Paul penned an opinion piece in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee declaring that Proposition 13 and its aftermath “robs us of our ability to govern ourselves democratically and condemns our children to a shabbier life.”
I imagine the folks at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will add that line to the list of the “Top Ten Ridiculous Things Blamed on Proposition 13.” The measure has been held responsible for a freeway collapse during an earthquake, child obesity, the lack of choir singers, and even O.J. Simpson’s not-guilty verdict in the 1995 criminal trial, to name a few examples.
But let’s look at the charges by Mathews and Paul.
I actually have sympathy for their charge that some power was centralized in Sacramento after Proposition 13 passed. Legislators took the advantage of wording in the measure that allowed property taxes to be “apportioned according to law.”
Best Candidate for State-Local Re-alignment: Transportation
In his proposed state budget Governor
Jerry Brown called for shifting state revenue and state authority for a number
of major programs from the state to local governments. Without a doubt transportation should be at
the top of the list.
In transportation local governments
already have experienced personnel, established organizational structures and a
proven track record of delivering quality projects on time and on budget.
Specifically, over the past 27 plus years
California’s nineteen Self-Help Counties (SHCs) have done an excellent job
improving our state’s transportation system.
Time and again these county authorities have gone to their local voters
and told them that if they approve a local sales tax increase for a limited
number of years, the county will deliver a specified list of local
transportation projects within a specified time. The county authorities know that if they do
not deliver on their promises, they will lose the trust of their local voters
and will find it very difficult to pass future local sales tax measures.
Addressing the Soaring Cost of Medical Care
Insured Californians usually see the bill for their monthly healthcare premium or the amount deducted from their paycheck to pay for medical insurance. However, they rarely see the $6,500 bill for just the cost of the hospital room where they stayed, or the $2,500 for the colonoscopy or even the $150 a month for their allergy medication.
Yet, these are the numbers that really matter in determining the price for medical insurance premiums because the costs of health care – the hospital, doctors, prescription drugs and other medical bills – on average make up 87 percent of the premium price. And those costs are rising faster than inflation.
For instance, the price of a colonoscopy – a test physicians say we should have after age 50 – has tripled in price in the last three years. The average price of hospital care in California increased nearly 40 percent in five years. And national spending on prescription drugs has more than doubled in the past decade.