The Economist Magazine’s One-sided View
I
suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the Economist Magazine’s series of articles this
week upbraiding California and the initiative process. You can look back over
the years and find the Economist’s disdain for Proposition 13. What is
surprising is how unbalanced the articles are. Hardly any supporters of the
initiative process were given a chance to speak and some of the outlandish
comments against the process were left unchallenged.
Here’s a
prime example: The article quoted former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass saying,
"any billionaire can change the state constitution. All he has to do is spend
money and lie to people." In elections just the past few years, ultra-rich
individuals T. Boone Pickens (Prop 10, Alternative Fuels, 2008) and Stephen
Bing (Prop 87, oil severance tax, 2006) and free spending companies PG&E
(Prop 16, two-thirds vote for public energy provider, 2010) and Mercury
Insurance (Prop 17, discount auto insurance, 2010) all failed to change the law
with their money. Yet, not a word to counter the inaccurate picture Bass paints
in that article.
PPIC Poll: Both good and bad news for Governor Brown
A new poll released
Wednesday has good news and bad news for Gov. Jerry Brown.
The good news is that
his public approval ratings have rebounded slightly since March, according to
this survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. About 40 percent of
adults now view him favorably, compared to 34 percent a month earlier.
More good news: a
majority of Californians still like the idea of a special election to vote on
the budget, and they say they like Brown’s plan to balance the budget with a
mix of cuts and taxes.
Then there is the bad
news, for Brown.
The voters don’t like
some of the taxes in the package he is advocating, even if they are tied
explicitly to maintaining funding for the schools.
Did housing have a false recovery?
After several months of encouraging news on the
housing front, California housing prices are in the midst of another downturn,
if not yet a fall.
Housing prices have been steadily dropping since last
spring, after a year of recovery, according to a California composite of the
S&P Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. More ominous,
year-over-year home prices have been dropping since the beginning of the year,
signaling a return to the persistent price stickiness California has
experienced since the bursting of the mid-decade housing bubble.
Does California Need a Monarch?
OK, I may be catching royal wedding fever, but this damn
question keeps sneaking into my mind.
Would
California be better off with its own king or queen?
Crazy to
ask, but I can’t stop thinking about it, perhaps because the nuptials of
William and Kate are already the number one story on the LA local news.
Sure, it
ain’t going to happen, but would it be so bad?
One big problem that underlies many
of our California maladies is that we have no sense of our own history. Californians
and their leaders move fast. They come and go. And yes, once in a while, they
return (see Brown, Jerry). But for the most part, we govern, and mis-govern
ourselves. The big decisions in California have had little to do with memorable
individuals or leaders-and everything to do with decisions on constitutional
amendments or initiatives that we ourselves made. Which may be one reason why
we forget the damage we ourselves have done, almost as soon as we have done.