Letter from Brussels: Europe Opens the Door to California and Its Initiative Biz
Dear Californians, and especially those Californians who
play in the initiative process,
You might want to plan a working vacation to Europe soon.
I’m spending the week in Brussels, visiting European Union
institutions and talking with people here about a new, EU-wide initiative
process that will launch in April 2012.
The regulations of the process are still being drafted, both
here in Brussels and in the member states – which, like California counties,
will handle the verification of signatures. But the good news for Californians
is this: you can draft your own initiative and take it to Europe.
All you have to do is create a committee that has at least
seven European citizens from seven different EU member states. You can fund the
thing with foreign money – you’ll have to disclose it – whether that money
comes from individuals, multinational corporations, unions, or, heck, even
foreign governments. (Personally, just out of a spectator’s affection for
chutzpah, I’d love to see, say, a Chinese company owned and operated by the
People’s Liberation Army try to use this tool of democracy).
Partisan Budget Plan Already Causing More California Job Loss
Democrats in Sacramento are still operating from the point of view that if government raises taxes, more revenue will ensue. If members of the majority party would simply check empirical evidence, they would see that California has gone past the point of peak revenue generation and not only will fail to generate increased revenue, but will in fact greatly hinder California’s economic recovery, causing more businesses to pull out of the state or to close their doors altogether.
Case in point: the “Amazon” tax (Assembly Bill 28x) recently passed as part of the partisan majority vote budget deal.
According to business and finance experts, due to Governor Brown’s signing of AB 28x, approved by Democrat legislators on a party-line vote, small web-based businesses’ revenue will drop by 20% to 30%. Why? As a direct result of the enactment of AB 28x, larger internet retailers, such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com, have already sent notices to over 20,000 California affiliates business terminating their contracts for advertising services.
California Is For The Birds…and Fish
California has long been thought to be the land of fruits and nuts. The actions of its state government too often support that characterization. In recent years, government has deprived the breadbasket of America, California’s San Joaquin Valley, of much needed water to save a three-inch bait fish. Not to be out done, an agency is now seeking to displace prime dairy land to accommodate rail tracks for an utterly unneeded high-speed train. Why punish dairy farmers you ask? Because they don’t want to harm a bird sanctuary. In that way, and sundry others, California government deliberately destroys its own economy and literally is for the birds.
Not long ago, a major CEO from California’s tech industry said, “The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create . . . a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn’t want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways.” Of course, Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers was talking about one of California’s leading industries. His conclusion, however, is not limited to California’s tech industry. It certainly applies to California’s #1 industry: agriculture.
Hot Coffee Should Be Put on Ice
Earlier this year a documentary movie titled Hot Coffee was released to little fanfare. The other day it premiered on HBO to even less fanfare. So instead of wasting your time watching this trial lawyer public relations piece, I thought I might cut to the chase and give you my review.
First of all, Susan Saladoff, the producer and director, is a former trial lawyer. So that should clearly tell you that she is going to pursue a certain angle, as many documentarians do. However, when you peel back the layers on this documentary you can easily see Hot Coffee is simply a platform for the trial lawyer agenda.
I am not even going to get into the individual cases discussed in the movie, but each drives one of the key reforms the trial bar continuously fights against: caps on punitive damages, medical malpractice caps and arbitration agreements.