Contempt for Voters in Senate Move on Amazon Tax
The maneuver in the Senate Appropriations Committee
yesterday to undercut the referendum on the Amazon tax legislation is a glaring
example of the contempt with which legislators hold the people’s right of initiative
and referendum. The process is an integral part of the checks and balances
system giving the people control over their government. Clearly, some
legislators don’t want the voters making decisions at the ballot box on actions
taken by the legislature.
Amazon.com challenged a new law that requires online
retailers to collect sales tax. A referendum was filed to put the issue before
the voters. According to the Los
Angeles Times, signature gatherers "already are off the streets, having met
their goal well before the Sept. 27 deadline for turning in completed
petitions."
To foil this process, Senator Loni Hancock pulled what
amounts to a parliamentary parlor trick by gutting a bill and substituting
language similar to the wording in the original tax law calling the revised
bill an "urgency" measure. The constitution declares that an urgency measure,
which requires a two-thirds vote to pass, is immune to a referendum effort.
Partisan Fights Hold Ideas Hostage
"Not Invented Here" is recognized as a pretty dumb way to
run a tech company. It doesn’t work so well in politics, either.
In the biz world, it refers to a company’s unwillingness to
make use of technology or innovations that someone else thought of first,
figuring it can’t be that good if we didn’t develop it our self (see also:
Let’s Reinvent the Wheel).
In politics, a similar attitude is standard operating
procedure when it comes to budgets, legislation, proposals and just about
anything else that comes down the pipe. Not only can’t it be that great an idea
if someone from the other party thought it up, but no way, no how are we going
to let the other guy snatch any political credit for it.
A case in point can be seen in D.C. right now, where
Republicans seem to be willing to fight tooth and nail for a tax increase
President Obama wants to block.
Department of History: The Referendum Has Always Been About Shipping
Amazon may not have intended it, but
there’s historical justice in the online retailer’s use of the California
referendum.
The
history of the referendum is tied up in the history of delivering items of
value – originally documents – from place to place.
That
history dates to 15th century Switzerland. Municipalities,
particularly in the canton Graubünden, were
trying to escape from the oversight of feudal overloads. Some bought their own
freedom, introduced their own courts – and joined together into leagues for
mutual defense and local self-determination.
Simplify This Legal System – Already!
LA Superior Court has announced more severe staffing and budget cuts coming this year and next. SF Superior Court has already forecast that civil cases will slow down to pre-‘Fast-Track’ (just what it sounds like) glacial swiftness, and that litigants will not enjoy waiting 5 years to get to trial here in the 21stC, just like we didn’t enjoy it back in the ‘80’s. The quality of justice is being strained by economic realities to the breaking point.
It’s high time (over-time, some would say, and I would agree) to simplify this California legal system – Already! – Before we slip into David Copperfield’s Bleak House-land, or resemble a legal system like in India, where civil cases drag on, literally, through generations of lawyers; let’s just STOP . . . . .. and think, for a minute.
I will enter my 35th year practicing law as a litigator in the courts of the LA Superior Court in a few months – I started back when you could park at the Music Center for $2; there were not nearly as many high-rise office buildings downtown – perhaps the air was more foul then than it is now. I have watched the legal system slowly become overloaded, underfunded, and now largely abandoned by most popular judges after they reach retirement age, for the Golden Fields of private judging, or, by it’s more dignified name, Alternative Dispute Resolution.