Gilbert R. "Gib" Marguth, Jr. was born in Oregon in
1934.  He passed away a few days ago
after a 9-year battle with leukemia and lymphoma at age 77.

Assemblyman Marguth represented the 15^th Assembly
District with distinction in the 1980’s. 
He was a straight, common sense talker with a rye sense of humor and a
smile that lit up any room he was in.  He
served as Mayor of Livermore and also on the Zone 7 Water Board locally and
left the Assembly due to appointment as the State’s Deputy Superintendent of
Public Instruction.

I had the chance to work with Assemblyman Marguth this past
year when he attended several of our events with former Assembly Leader Martin
Garrick in the Brentwood and Walnut Creek area. I didn’t know "Gib" well but I
wish I had known him better.  He was a
gracious gentleman who enjoyed people and believed that public service was tied
to representative government.  He was the
embodiment of a true public servant.

The Redistricting Commission is now history. It has certified its final maps and all that’s left is the counting: who gets how many seats under the new maps.

In the Assembly, the consensus is that there is not much change. Few seats will be in play next year; most incumbents are reasonably safe. The two party breakdown in the Assembly is not likely to change very much.

The State Senate is a much different story. Here the consensus is that the commission handed the Democrats a two thirds majority in the Senate. That will lead to dramatic changes in how California is governed. Certainly Gov. Brown will not need to go hat in hand to Republicans looking for votes to raise taxes; a two thirds Senate will be able to raise taxes pretty much at will, and there is every reason to assume that future budgets will be balanced with tax increases rather than additional cuts.

I know that Senate Bill 448 — which requires circulators of
initiative and referendum petitions to wear large badges or signs on their
chests explaining, in 30 point type, that they are paid – is probably
unconstitutional, given that it restricts the First Amendment rights of people
to petition their government.

And I know it’s sort of pointless,
since Californians already know that circulators are paid and since the change
doesn’t do anything about what’s wrong with the initiative process. Real reform
involves making changes to what the process can do and integrating it with the
budget and the legislative process and the rest of our governing system.
Unfortunately, much of the legislation to change the process in California would
limit access to the process – even though the process is already inaccessible
to anyone who isn’t rich. (Which is why virtually all circulators are paid).

But I love this idea – mainly
because there’s nothing better than a big, goofy badge and sign.

Gina DiCaro of CMTA implied in his piece, California’s cap-and-trade needs to be well designed to protect manufacturers, that California’s landmark clean energy law, AB 32, threatens our state’s manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing in California has faced a range of threats for some time as a result of larger economic trends – including heavy investment by the Chinese government to grow Chinese manufacturing companies in virtually every sector. But AB 32 actually represents an important part of the solution because it has helped to drive investment in the fastest growing sector of California’s economic future: clean energy innovation, which is helping our state usher in the manufacturing jobs of the future.

In the few years since AB 32 was adopted, more than $11 billion in venture capital has been invested in California, at a time when our economy needed it the most. In fact, the National Venture Capital Association estimates that each $100 million in venture capital funding will help create 2,700 jobs directly and support other jobs indirectly, while generating $500 million in annual revenue over two decades.

When part of our California landscape is burning, we send in the firefighters. The California dream is ablaze for millions of able men and women whose ability to support their families has gone up in smoke. The California Legislature will adjourn the 2011 legislative session on Friday, Sept. 9. Taking bold action in the next three weeks will not require more tax revenue, but it will require bipartisanship, political will and a relentless focus on passing laws that will encourage and enable the private sector to create new jobs for Californians.

Our 12 percent unemployment rate — with more than 2 million unemployed workers — is not a Democratic or Republican problem, it is a California problem. When Californians are not working, we have a poverty problem and a state revenue problem. California currently has the second highest rate of unemployment in the nation, an almost unimaginable situation given the vast resources of this great State. And it is getting worse. We have 53,000 fewer Californians working today than a year ago.

The Redistricting Commission has now completed it work and certified its final maps. A referendum has been filed against the Senate plan. As of now, the legal action appears aimed at the Senate plan.

Latino groups have threatened a lawsuit, likely in federal court, against the Senate plan for regressing Latino opportunities. Republicans may file suit in state court against the map plan for violating state constitutional criteria.

Propositions 11 and 20 vest original jurisdiction over legal challenges to the redistricting plans in the State Supreme Court, and the court has issued guidelines for anyone wishing to file an action. A plaintiff has 45 days to file a suit, meaning any lawsuit must be filed before the end of September. The Secretary of State in the past has said she will need final maps by February 1, so October 1 to February 1 is the window for the court to make any changes to the maps.

Results of the Deliberative Poll from a couple of months ago
were revealed yesterday and they seemed to track the feelings Californians
express in more standardized polling.

The poll was conducted over a weekend in Torrance with 400
citizens, a sampling of the voter population, taking part. The participants
were polled at the beginning of the exercise. Over the course of the weekend
they took part in breakout groups, meeting occasionally as a committee of the whole
to hear discussions on four separate issues from experts in State-Local Reform,
the Initiative Process, Representation and Taxation & Fiscal Policy. They
were then polled at the end of the weekend.

For the purposes of this column, I will focus on the
Taxation and Fiscal Policy section since I served on the expert panel in that
category.

A message gleaned from the polls on the taxation issue might
be: Waste Not, Want Not.

A broad and growing coalition of influential labor, business, education, and local government groups has come together to kill Assembly Bill 742, a so-called “gut and amend” measure that would usurp local government land use decision-making, put new jobs and vital revenue at risk, and further diminish the business climate in California.

The bill was cobbled together with new language just days before the end of the Legislative Session by Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) specifically to help the politically powerful and wealthy Pechanga Tribe of Luiseno Indians circumvent local land use authorities and kill a planned aggregate quarry project near Temecula.

When one
of my sons was three, we were driving down the street.  I realized I had passed our destination and merely
turned the car back in the direction
of our home.  From the back seat I heard
this cheery voice, "What’s the matter Dad, you forget your wallet again?"  My tendency to lose my wallet is something my
kids remind me of to this day.  A recent
Father’s Day card is to the right.  (Note my close physical
resemblance to Indy and that my kids notice it too.)

So when it comes to fiscal responsibility, I may not be the best messenger.  But $862,000,000,000???  That is how much the administration spent on
the last stimulus plan.  A new report explains
why the administration has given the word "stimulus" such a bad name and why it
would be a huge mistake to allow them to now produce "Stimulus II, More Lost
Treasure".  Report
by John Cogan and John Taylor

The administration attempted to stimulate increase
economic activity by (1) direct payments to state and local governments, (2) creating
and executing "shovel ready" projects and (3) direct payments to individuals.  However, with respect to direct payments to
government entities, Cogan and Taylor conclusively show the funds were not used
to create jobs but to (a) increase payments to health and welfare programs and (b)
provide an alternative funding source for existing projects.  For example, instead of issuing a bond to pay
for a project they already planned to undertake, they just used stimulus funds.