THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA is also having elections
next week -- if you weren't quite sure. A great place to follow the action is at
Rough & Tumble, which has massive coverage of California politics. A recent link --
"L.A.'s lifetime jobs -- the dance of the lemons."
Another great site is Daniel Weintraub's California Insider blog. Among other things, Weintraub has a regular "Where's Arnold?" feature. He recently linked to this interesting LA Times story, "Vietnamese Show Clout in Funding":
The growing political and economic muscle of the nation's Vietnamese community is on display in two Orange County elections, in which a pair of candidates � including one who is expected to become California's first Vietnamese American state legislator � has attracted nearly $1 million in contributions. Most of that money has gone to Van Tran, a Garden Grove councilman running as a Republican for a seat in the Assembly. Tran has gathered about $800,000 both from traditional GOP donors and from Vietnamese Americans locally and across the country. About a third of his cash came from outside Southern California, including money from fundraisers in Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington state and Virginia.
And the best way to get a read on the next California political earthquake is to take a look at the blog of the 1,000,000+ listener
John & Ken Show in Los Angeles. Let's just say that the issue of immigration is
not going away.
Finally, the OC Register has come out with its recommendations on the 16 statewide inititives. Here's a sampler:
Proposition 63 -- Mental Health Services Expansion, Funding. Tax on Personal Incomes above $1 Million
The top state income tax rate would rise to 10.3 percent from 9.3 percent. When a similar increase to 11.3 percent was imposed in 1991, many wealthy headed for such places as Nevada and Texas, which have no state income taxes. There is no logical reason this group of taxpayers should be singled out to pay for these services. Mental health issues should be part of general budget discussions. Vote No.
Proposition 64 -- Limit on Private Enforcement of Unfair Business Competition Laws
Supporters call it the "Stop Shakedown Lawsuits Initiative." The state's unfair-competition law, known as Section 17200, allows private attorneys to enforce the law by threatening legal action against small businesses that might have violated some jot or tittle of the code. Prop. 64 would stop the abuses, shifting responsibility for representing the public from private lawyers to district attorneys and the attorney general, where it should be. Vote Yes.
Proposition 67 -- Emergency Medical Services. Funding.
Telephone Surcharge
Although emergency medical care in California is in critical condition, this proposition comes up with the wrong solution: $500 milliona year in tax increases, mainly by adding 3 percentage points as an extra surcharge on the use of phone lines, raising the existing 0.7 percent tax to 3.7 percent of your monthly telephone bill. Californians already are over-taxed. Vote No.
Proposition 71 -- Stem Cell Research. Funding. Bonds
This is a dubious way to fund medical research, especially on such a controversial issue. It would call for $3 billion in bonds that would, with interest, cost a total of $6 billion from the general fund over 30 years. The state general fund would be dinged about $200 million a year. The proposition would establish a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to regulate and fund stem cell research. Setting up state taxpayers to do the job of private venture capitalists is a bad idea and could result in politicizing the research as wellas precipitate a crowd of institutions seeking ballot-box funding. Vote No.
Proposition 72 -- Health Care Coverage Requirements
This is a long step toward socialized medicine, setting up a new state agency to provide medical insurance to companies that don't provide their own. It could raise business costs as much as $7 billion a year. There are other ways to address health care coverage concerns. Vote No.
Posted by Greg Ransom
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