Last week the
Sacbee urged the governor to take a public position on proposition 90.
The governor needs to come out strongly against Proposition 90. If voters were to approve this deceptive law, it would gut Schwarzenegger's efforts to improve flood control, preserve open space in the Sierra, upgrade transportation and ensure that cities and counties have adequate funds for public safety and other priorities.
I was thinking the same thing. After all the governor has put a laundry list of bond measures on the ballot specifically aimed at improving California's infrastructure such as roads, parks, schools and levees. Yet on the same ballot is proposition 90 which would double or triple the costs to build these necessary improvements. Why should taxpayers finance windfalls for land speculators? Where's the governor? Well I don't have to hold my breath any longer on this one.
This week
Schwarzenegger finally came out against Proposition 90. I really have to give the governor credit on this one because he's bucking his own party. Of course within the California Republican party the term "Common Good" is a synonym for "Communist" - so I guess their support of proposition 90 is expected.
I have made the defeat of proposition 90 the priority in my blog over the last few weeks and will continue to blog against it till it is defeated. This is the most far reaching of any of the propositions on the ballot while at the same time being one of the least publicized or talked about which is just the way Howie Rich likes it. Howie Rich is a wealthy libertarian New York developer who is funding several ballot measures in Missouri, Arizona, Nevada and, Montana - all with the expressed aim of hogtying local governments. His initiatives support everything from inflexible spending caps, suing judges, to eliminating local government's ability to enact zoning regulations. His surrogates in California have been advertising proposition 90 as the "save our homes" act. Yet a proposition supposedly about saving peoples homes mentions "land" only 2 times out of 1600+ words. Proposition 90 is not about eminent domain reform it is an extremist definition of property rights. If the government wants to stop you from building a strip mine in the middle of your neighborhood then it has to pay you.
As the election enters the home stretch we are finally seeing some coverage of proposition 90. On Friday of last week Forum on KQED had an hour dedicated to proposition 90. And the NO on Proposition 90 folks have finally discovered Youtube and posted some case studies from Oregon which passed a similar proposition 2 years ago. These are not the typical 15 second meaningless commercials you see on prime time. They are definitely worth looking over to get some idea of the impacts 90 could have here while also keeping in mind that the language of 90 is far broader than the Oregon measure and would do much more to limit Government's abilities no only to make land use regulations but environmental, worker and tenant protections.
No on Proposition 90
(ps yes on 87)