Newsom Struggles for Visibility
When Gavin Newsom announced last week that he’s joining with
MC Hammer in an April 17 "Hands Across California" event to support community
colleges, it raised a question.
"There’s MC Hammer and Gavin Newsom. I wonder what Newsom’s
doing these days?"
Then there’s the two guys a San Francisco Chronicle reporter
overheard
last week on a brief flight Newsom was taking with Richard Branson, founder
of Virgin America airlines, to join Mayor Ed Lee in dedicating a new terminal
at San Francisco International:
"San
Francisco Mayor Ed Lee?" asked one Virgin America employee as former Mayor
Gavin Newsom sat three rows ahead.
Will a “no” vote extend the taxes?
Governor Brown and Speaker Perez are floating the notion of legislative
approval of tax extensions, to be "ratified" by the people at a later election.
This raises an interesting question – how would you present the question?
Remember, this is not a plebiscite, it’s a proposed
constitutional amendment.
The most straightforward approach would be to propose
to continue the extension of the taxes for however many years is agreed upon.
In that case, a "yes" vote continues the taxes while a "no" vote brings them to
an end. As a bonus, any related constitutional changes, such as a spending cap,
could be included in the measure. The disadvantage, as any political consultant
would attest, is that it is more difficult to obtain a "yes" vote from voters
than a "no" vote.
The Prospect of Two Californias and the Civil War
Imagine if there were two Californias. There have been 27
attempts to break up the state by one accounting, and in one instance the
people actually voted to create two states out of California. I bring this up
as the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter occurred
yesterday because the Civil War is probably the reason there is only one
California today.
Of course, Governor Brown has
been saying of late that California and the country is as divided today as
it was during the Civil War, but that’s an issue for another column.
Sacramento’s Ongoing War Against Regular Californians
If you can afford a 19 percent increase in your electric bill, and are reading this column in a newspaper, you can move on to the sports section. The following will not be of interest to you.
However, if you are a low income, fixed income or even a middle class Californian, you are under assault from Sacramento. Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has persuaded his colleagues to approve his bill to make energy even more expensive. The current mandate that energy companies get 20 percent of their power from “renewable” sources, will be raised to a third over the next eight years. This will result in an average utility rate increase of 19 percent, according the California Air Resources Board. This is on top of the existing mandate so that the total increased cost to Pacific Gas and Electric customers will be 44 percent, to Southern California Edison customers 34 percent and to those served by the Los Angeles Department of Water a Power it will be 74 percent.