The ‘Deep Slate: November 2016 Edition

Prop 51: School Bonds: No
I read the voter guide and was all prepared to say “HELL YES” to school bonds, as I would for almost anything that supports education, but then I noticed that Governor Brown, who I generally like, was against it & thought “What the hell?” So as I did more research, it became pretty obvious that this is one of those things that points out why ballot measures suck. If you position it as,

SCHOOL BONDS. FUNDING FOR K-12 SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACILITIES. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds for new construction and modernization of K-12 public school facilities;…

who else but a Republidiot would oppose it? It’s misleadingly phrased so decent-minded folks will say “Sure!” But digging into the details, you learn that this bond was put together by and for developers of school buildings like the California Building Industry Association. I like the San Jose Mercury’s takedown & this article from the LA Times because they touch on the environmental argument against Prop 51:

Unlike all the other school-bond measures placed on the ballot since the State Facilities Grant Program began in 1998, this one wasn’t put there by the Legislature with the governor’s approval. In fact, Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t had anything good to say about Proposition 51. “I am opposed to the developers’ $9-billion bond,” he told The Times in February, referring archly to the construction industry’s role as the proposition’s main financier. Brown also argued that it would promote sprawl and continue an inequitable system based on which school districts get to the application line fastest, not which ones need it the most.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office had an even more critical view of the current approach to funding school construction in its 2015-16 budget report. “Notably,” it said, “the existing program fails to treat school facility costs as an ongoing expense despite the recurring nature of facility needs, allows disparities based on school district property wealth, fails to target funding according to greatest need, results in excessive administrative complexity, and lacks adequate accountability mechanisms.” Ouch. But that was just the start. The report went on to point out that as long as there is money in the state fund, developers of big new housing projects don’t pay more than half the cost of building the schools necessary to serve those homes. That extra subsidy for new construction at a time when many existing schools are underutilized only encourages the sprawl that has been an environmental and resources drain on the state.

In looking at all the “yes” endorsements this measure has gotten, I’m thinking it is a measure that’s hard to oppose because “being against schools” is politically toxic, which leads us back to why I hate bond measures. Don’t believe the hype. Vote No.

Prop 52: Medi-Cal Hospital Fee: Yes
This is a fairly straightforward (though terribly wonky) fee that private hospitals pay to help support Medi-Cal. It is expiring and needs to be extended, which it has been done several times before. Important. Uninteresting. Yes.  

UPDATE on 52: David Glasser (in the comments section below) and Matthew Bain on Facebook  both point out that this measure is changing the State Constitution to make this fee set up structural and thus requiring a 2/3 vote of the public to change it.  My position stands, but it is an interesting take.  Read more here & here if you are interested.

Prop 53: Revenue Bond Vote: NO NO NO
The heinous Prop 13 was one grand example of CA shooting itself in the head, and this would be another. However, this is nowhere near as far reaching, in that it only really effects LARGE projects (like High Speed Rail…. MUST. GET. TRAINS.). Nonetheless, it is a similar attempt to be our own worst enemy. Simply put, this will make it harder to create large, revenue-producing projects by requiring a very high electoral bar, a 2/3 statewide vote, for revenue-generating bonds. So, say if we in the Bay Area wanted to float a large bond, perhaps to build a BART tunnel or something, voters in Orange County would have a say, even though it is practically irrelevant to them. Why is this a good idea? This measure is only on the ballot because a single Central Valley farmer spent $4.5 million dollars to get it here. This is not how public policy should be made.

“The problems with initiatives like this one are almost too many to list. Instead of a real seasoning before legislators and state officials, there’s only one author. Clearer language and attempts at compromise are ignored. If it proves disastrous, it can’t be amended or repealed without another public vote,”

Prop 54: Legislative Transparency: Yes

This bill mostly does two things:

• Requires the text of legislation to be voted on be published 72hrs in advance
• Requires the Legislature to record all its public meetings & post them within 24 hours

These seem to be good things. Evidently, many bills get rushed through and voted on with very little reading by our legislators because amendments and riders get tacked on hastily at the last minute (from the SF Chronicle):

Examples abound of the legislative leadership bypassing the normal public process to do the bidding of a special interest. There was that budget measure that limited the amount of reserves local school districts could maintain as a cushion against lean times (a gift to the teachers union, which wanted to make those dollars available for immediate spending); the 2009 waiver of environmental rules for a downtown Los Angeles football stadium (on the argument that time was of the essence to secure an NFL team … the project never broke ground); or the 2011 bill that Democrats rushed through to force all voter initiatives on the November ballot, thus breaking a deal with Republicans to put spending reform on the June 2012 ballot.

A varied coalition of folks, including the League of Women Voters and all the major newspapers in CA support this, while a smaller group of folks, including the Democratic Party, oppose, mostly on the ground that this could have the consequence of giving more time to special interests to lobby laws. But frankly, that argument doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, and even if they are right, protecting us from lobbyists by making legislation more obscure to vote on is just kinda insane. I agree with all the newspapers… Yes.

Prop 55: Upper Income Tax Extension for Education & Healthcare: YES
In 2012, during the big fiscal meltdown, we approved a small tax on folks with incomes over $250K, to help with the budget. It is expiring. This measure would extend it for another 12 years. If it is extended, in good years it is expected to raise $9 billion, and in bad $4 billion. Half of this money would go to schools & community colleges, a bunch to Medi-Cal and the rest to the rainy day fund & debt payments. This is a BIG YES.

Prop 56: Cigarette Tax Increase: YES
The current tax on cigarettes is $0.87 a pack, and does not cover the latest noxious cancer-vector: e-cigs. This knocks the tax up to $2.87, and includes e-cigs. If that seems like a lot, remember that California taxpayers spend $3.58 BILLION every year— $413 per family, whether they smoke or not—paying medical costs of smokers. The funds will go primarily to state health programs. DONE. YES.

Prop 57: Criminal Sentencing Reform: YES
One of the most shameful things about California is our prison-industrial complex. In 2009 & 2011, the US government ordered us to reduce our prison population. The Supreme Court ruled that California prisons were overcrowded and violated the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment! This is a thoughtful measure designed to reduce that load by allowing possible parole for thousands of nonviolent felons. It would also help keep the problem from happening by giving judges, not prosecutors, the authority to decide whether juveniles should be tried as adults. And it allows prisoners to earn increased parole time for good behavior. Done and DONE. YES.

Prop 58: English Language Learning: YES
This measure allows schools, teachers & parents decide the best way to teach English to non-English speakers, rather than a statewide mandate to force most students to learn in English-only classes (which was created by Prop 227 in 1998). Different kids have different needs. YES.

Prop 59: Anti-Citizen’s United Statement: Yes
This is a “statement” vote in that it doesn’t do anything other than tell the world how California feels about the horrible Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision of 2010. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the same First Amendment rights to free political speech as individuals do. And since donating money to campaigns is considered “free speech”, CU opened the floodgates of corporate money influencing today’s elections – can you say SuperPACs? It is long since time to stop this madness, and though this is only the tiniest step in that direction, it is still worth a Yes. (Also, if it fails, it might be a significant setback for the real work of getting a Constitutional Amendment overturning CU.)

Prop 60: Condoms in Porn: No
I <3 California. :-/ There is no reason this should be on the ballot. If there were a real workplace safety issue this was addressing (there isn't - the industry already has well functioning testing regimes) it would come in the form of safety regulations form Cal-OSHA. This is just stupid. Vote No. (There is much more that can be said about this, and if you care, the SF Chronicle does it well here as does Ballot.fyi.)

Prop 61: Prescription Drug Purchasing: No
Wow, this one makes my head hurt. This is evidently a well meaning attempt to rein in the outrageous cost of prescription drugs by forcing the state to only buy drugs at the heavily discounted rate the Veteran’s Administration gets (by federal law). Presumably this would apply market pressure on drug makers to lower their prices. Or…. it could do a host of other things that would be bad like incentivizing drug companies to stop offering some drugs to the VA, or to charge the VA more. No one really knows. Here’s a great quote from the LA Times:

As much as Proposition 61’s sponsors rail about drugmakers’ greed, however, they assume that the very same avaricious, monopolistic companies will do nothing in response to the squeeze on the industry’s profits if the measure passes — that somehow, scruples or lack of market power will stop them from compensating by raising the prices they charge private insurers, consumers and the VA itself. That’s either naive or magical thinking, and it’s why Proposition 61 deserves a no vote.

The excellent Ballotpedia article on 61 presents some other useful tidbits:

1. The state’s legal analysts can’t predict how much it will save the state on drug costs, if any
2. Millions and millions are pouring in on both sides, making this one of (if not the) most expensive ballot initiative campaign in California history
3. The mix of people for and against this is dizzying, with groups & people I trust and distrust on both sides. (Though it must be said, more groups I trust are “Yes”, and more groups I distrust on the “No” side – with me! Like the drug companies – eeek.)

So what to do? Look, the problem of out of control drug prices is as near as your nearest kid with an EpiPen, so this is a problem that desperately needs to be solved. I get that the drug companies’ big bucks have made this really difficult to solve at the legislature, but with this many unknowns and this big of a deal, I think we should vote no until a better proposal gets hammered out. First do no harm. Vote no.

(Ed. note: I’d like to give a shout out to the League of Pissed of Voters voting guide for their thoughtful write up, which got me to change my mind about this one.  Nice work!)

Prop 62: Repeal the Death Penalty: YES
If you believe that our court system and government are infallible, you should vote NO on 62. If you feel otherwise, you should vote YES.

Prop 63: Gun Control (Ammunition) improvements: YES
EASY. Requires background checks for purchasing ammunition and creates a process to remove guns from felons and people convicted of domestic violence. Honestly, this measure shouldn’t need to be on the ballot – it could be done at by the legislature. But since this is an attempt to do an end run around the massive lobbying might of the NRA, I get why we have to vote for simple sanity. DO IT. YES.

Prop 64: Marijuana Legalization: YES
I’ve said this about marijuana legalization for years: either make pot legal, or make alcohol illegal, but do one or the other because they seem to be similar on the harm/benefit scale. Since alcohol isn’t going anywhere, I say legalize pot & let’s be done with it. Two simple reasons: tax revenue & environmental protection. By making pot legal & thus taxable, the state stands to eventually start making somewhere around $1 billion a year in taxes, and reap millions of more in savings on enforcement. WIN. For me, the bigger win is environmental: growing illicit marijuana damages state and national parks in California, as the SF Chronicle puts it:

[Marijuana farming] has wreaked significant environmental damage from clandestine operations that divert water from streams, use chemicals and otherwise tamper with the ecosystem away from regulators’ scrutiny.

In fact, the California League of Conservation Voters has come out big for it, especially since 20% of the funds raised by Prop 64 will go to environmental cleanup & remediation of public lands effected. This is just good, sane policy. HELL YES.

Prop 65: Carry Out Bags: NO NO NO
This is a DEEPLY CYNICAL attempt to dismantle California’s AWESOME plastic bag ban… Details below in the Prop 67 section, but just know that the San Jose Mercury News nails it:

And vote no on Proposition 65, one of the most disingenuous ballot measures in state history — and that’s saying something.

Vote HELL NO on Prop 65.

Prop 66: Death Penalty Enforcement: NO
One of the standard (and true) arguments against the death penalty is the cost. It goes like this: when you factor in the costs of all the trials and legal processes needed to make sure we are not executing innocent people with the death penalty, you eventually realize it is cheaper to just give them life sentences. This measure attempts to “fix” this problem by “streamlining” and essentially reducing the legal processing of these cases to reduce expense. This is folly, you’re really just making it easier to execute innocent people (which already happens). I like what the SF Chronicle said in their opposing editorial:

Prop. 66… proposes a highly complex, probably very expensive and constitutionally questionable scheme for streamlining the appeals process in hopes of shaving years off the timeline between conviction and execution.

Vote NO.

Prop 67: Plastic Bag Ban: YES YES YES
These measures are so deceptive, it is SO FUCKED UP. 65 in particular, which reads like a pro-environment law, is SUPER CYNICAL and EVIL. Honestly the best write up I’ve seen of this is from Ballot.fyi, and they do a better job of explaining it than me (and pointing out how it is even worse than I’m saying) so really you should read that, but I’ll attempt a shorter version here:

Back in 2014, California became the first state to pass a landmark sea-critter-saving plastic bag ban, SB270, which should have gone into effect last summer. Part of the deal made with merchants (who opposed 270) was that they could instead sell paper & reusable bags at least $0.10 or more & they would get to keep the money. All was well, except that the plastic bag companies are PISSED and SCARED. So they have cynically put both 65 & 67 on the ballot (@#%$^*&), in hopes that the voters dismantle the plastic ban in one of a few ways. The most obvious two are: if 65 passes (& gets more votes than 67), it will send the money raised from the bags into an environmental cleanup fund, but it will bleed away the support of the grocers, whose support is critical to make all this work. THAT is why 65 uses all the pro-environment language. With 67, the plastic bag companies have another shot at killing the plastic bag ban – if 67 fails to pass, the statewide ban doesn’t go into effect (local ones, like SF’s would still apply though – whew). Tell the plastic bag manufacturers WE SEE THROUGH YOUR BS: VOTE NO on 65 and YES on 67.