Just Say No on May 19th

The Calitics Editorial Board has released their Special Election endorsements. Just Say No.

Prop 1A - State Spending Cap. NO
"the increased revenues we would receive from Prop 1A are simply not worth the long-term damage to our government that this measure would create."

Prop 1B - Education Funding. Payment Plan. NO
"It is worth noting that Prop 1B would not provide a solution to the catastrophic financial crisis facing public education in this state, and would do little if anything to help the 26,000+ teachers who received a layoff notice last month keep their jobs in the fall."

Proposition 1C - Securitization of the lottery. NO
"The fact is that we have done this before and it failed...If we knew that we wouldn't just be back in the exact same situation 18 months from now, this might even be a reasonable idea to dig ourselves out of a very deep hole. As it is, we'd prefer to wait for something real."

Prop 1D - Diverts $600 Million from Prop 10 First Five funds to other childhood programs. - NO
"Rather than raiding First 5, we should have provided a sustainable revenue for the state. We should not abide by these budget gimmicks and ploys, and First 5 should not be their victim."

Prop 1E - Diverting Mental Health Services Funding - NO
"Mental health services are financially prudent spending. It saves money that will end up being spent elsewhere, whether for homeless services or prisons. Diverting this revenue is penny wise and pound foolish."

Prop 1F - Wasting Your Time. An Initiative. - NO
"not getting a raise in deficit years is not a sufficient incentive for anyone to actually do anything, nor is it really meaningful shared suffering."

The only I argument that I have, and which the Calitics Board acknowledge, is with Prop 1B.

If we were to vote strategically, we would vote No on 1A and Yes on 1B, but we leave that decision to you.

and that's exactly what I intend to do.

If 1A does end up passing...I want to be sure that I've hedged my bet.

For the full May 19 Special Election ballot analysis...check out Calitics

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Calitics FTW

For the second year in a row Calitics has made the Washington Posts, Chris Cillizza's list of the best state political blogs. You can check out the whole list at the Fix.

• In a state where one blog was far and away the most recommended by Fix readers, we have noted it by bolding the name of the blog. In states with multiple blogs in which no one was the most mentioned, the order in which the blogs are listed is entirely random. Let us repeat: entirely random.

Why they aren't in bold is beyond me...

but whatever...we all know that Calitics is THE definitive blog for California politics.

Congratulations to the whole crew!!!

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True Lies

The Governator is resorting to all-to-familiar number games and fear tactics in new radio ads for his May 19 Special Election campaign.

David Dayen wants to know where Arnold comes up with the $50 Billion dollar number.

$50 billion. How does the Governor arrive at that figure? He includes $16 billion dollars for the two years of regressive taxes that would be washed out in 2012 and 2013 if Prop. 1A fails. He includes an expected lawsuit from education interests to force payment of $9 billion in raided Prop. 98 funds if 1B fails. He includes the $6 billion that would not fill budget gaps from the last budget if Prop. 1C-1E fail. And then... I don't know, that's only $31 billion, I guess $50 billion sounds like a nice big number.

You can put it on posters!

Read more at Calitics

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Three Cheers for Me

*CHEER*

So, last night I was appointed the newest member of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee representing the Tri-Valley Democratic Club. I am very honored & excited to be able to serve the Democratic Party in the East Bay and can't wait to be assigned a committee and get to work.

*CHEER*

Then, this afternoon I check my email to find that I had been recommended to give an interview with a local reporter. I don't want to give away to many details and jinx myself, but I was asked for my take on politicians & blogging. I figured the guy just wanted a quote or something...no big deal. Next thing you know I'm off to get my haircut in the morning...They're sending over a photographer. My first interview. How cool is that!

*CHEER*

Finally, I get home from grabbing my wife from BART tonight and I've got yet another email sitting in my inbox. This one was particularly awesome to me personally. Brian Leubitz of Calitics sent me a message this evening with some very nice words of encouragement & congratulations on some of the work I have been doing lately. I've really admired and been inspired by the work that has been done over at Calitics in the last few years. It's always nice to be appreciated, but its particularly special when it comes from respected peers. Especially rad is the fact that I have just been added as the newest Front-Pager at Calitics.com I'm pretty stoked on this one. Guess this means I need to write something worth reading now ;)

BTW...

Tomorrow...Friday, April the 3rd...it's my Birthday. Happy Birthday it's going to be!

Three Cheers for Me!

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Constitutional Convention?

The Bay Area Council is sponsoring a California Constitutional Convention Summit in Sacramento tomorrow. Robert over at Calitics wants to know...Is it Time To Re-write California’s Constitution?

California's constitution has been amended frequently - over 500 times by some accounts - and included an effort in the late 1960s to modernize the document. Still, it has become clear that California's government is broken and unable to meet the needs of one of the worst crises our state has ever faced.

The economic crisis, drought, an energy and environmental crisis that seem to have faded a bit from the public mind but are still very much here - all of these problems are dumped into the lap of a government hamstrung by a conservative veto and a series of rules, many of which date from the last 30 years, designed specifically to prevent government from meeting the people's needs.

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Spending Cuts Calculator

Late last week and over the weekend tax calculators were rolled out in various publications across the state. The problem with these types of calculators is that hey never factor in how cuts to service might affect the average family. David over at Calitics asks the question...Where Are The Spending Cut Calculators?

In my life, I have never seen a "spending cut calculator," where someone good plug in the services they rely on, like how many school-age children they have, or how many roads they take to work, or how many police officers and firefighters serve their community, or what social services they or their families rely on, and how much they stand to lose in THAT equation. Tax calculators show bias toward the gated community screamers on the right who see their money being piled away for nothing. A spending cut calculator would actually show the impact to a much larger cross-section of society, putting far more people at risk than a below 1% hit to their bottom line.

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Budget Details Emerge

Some of the details of the budget being proposed by the Big Five have been leaked to the press

Multiple legislative sources said Tuesday that it would raise revenues temporarily by these means:

-- Increasing the state's sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar.

-- Increasing gasoline taxes by 12 cents per gallon.

-- Raising the state's vehicle license fee from the current 0.65 percent of a vehicle's value to 1.15 percent, with 1 percent going to the general fund and local law enforcement getting 0.15 percent.

-- Increasing the personal income tax across the board, either by assessing a surcharge on tax liability or increasing the tax rate.

The sales tax, personal income tax and vehicle license fee components would be in effect for either two years or five years, depending upon the fate of a ballot measure to restrict spending.

If voters approve the spending limit, the three revenue-raising components would be in effect for five years. If they reject the measure, the revenue would die after two years.

It was not clear Tuesday whether the proposed gasoline tax increase also would be tied to the ballot measure or how long it would remain in effect.

Robert has more over at Calitics.

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Farmlands Turn to Dust

From Calitics

As if we didn't have enough going on to make these times feel like the 1930s, the Salinas Californian reports on widespread abandonment of fields by farmers in the Central and Salinas Valleys. A devastating combination of drought and recession are leading to a crisis in California farming, endangering our food security

Seriously. What's next? Raining Locusts?

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Newsom's $20,000/Month Consultant

Bob Brigham over at Calitics has been doing some digging, and he's found some real dirt.

Twenty thousand dollars a month for Garry South? As in that Garry South. As in the open letter not to hire Garry South lead by Calitics?

So who is this man, Garry South? He may not be the most well-known figure in California politics. He doesn't have the name recognition of an Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Darrel Issa, or even a Tom McClintock, but he's caused more harm to the State Democratic Party than those three could wish for in their grandest dreams.

Twenty thousand dollars a month for this? No wonder Gavin Newsom can't raise as much cash compared to when he ran for mayor.

via Calitics

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