Saturday Snippets is a regular weekend feature at Daily Kos
• Initiative to revise California’s 42-year-old Proposition 13 qualifies for ballot: California Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Friday that the Schools & Communities First organization seeking to revise Proposition 13 by raising commercial property tax rates has more than the necessary 997,000 signatures required to put the issue on the November ballot. Proponents say the change they have designed would raise $12 billion annually, with 60% of it assigned to local governments and 40% to education. Previous efforts failed to repeal or reform the proposition that mandated taxes on both residential and commercial property be set at 1% of the purchase price with a maximum 2% annual increase. Thus, properties on the same block can have hugely different tax bills since there is no reassessment until a property is sold. The proposition also requires that tax hikes be approved by two-thirds of the legislature and local measures by majority vote. Californians passed the proposition with a 63% margin, and no matter how much opposition forces have complained about damage caused to state programs and infrastructure, particularly in education, the law remains intact.
But the coronavirus pandemic has smashed California’s finances, creating what is so far estimated as a $54 billion deficit that is gutting the state budget which, by law, must be balanced annually. If passed, the ballot measure would establish a “split-roll property tax,” with commercial properties worth $3 million or more reassessed every three years at market value. Smaller businesses, farming properties, and residential homes would remain under the current tax limits. An April poll found 53% of respondents in support of the reform proposal, with 70% of likely Democratic voters in favor, compared to 24% of Republicans.
• Australian wildlife park celebrates arrival of first koala born since bushfires burned the area: The baby koala—known like a kangaroo baby as a joey—was revealed in a Facebook video posted by the Australian Reptile Park near Sydney on Tuesday. Keepers have named the baby Ash. The park, which is set to open Monday as Australia relaxes its coronavirus lockdown measures calls her "a sign of hope for the future of Australia's native wildlife." Bushfires killed large numbers of koalas last year, causing some biologists to wonder if the species would survive.
• North Carolina does turnabout from its anti-wind past: In 2017, the Tar Heel state passed an 18-month ban on wind projects. In 2019, there was an attempt to extend the ban for another three years. Although this was mostly aimed at onshore projects, it also raised issues for wind turbines off the coast. But now North Carolina would like to become the East Coast hub of wind turbine manufacture, which could have a big impact on the renewable industry in the United States. David Iaconangelo at E&E News writes that the state’s Department of Commerce is undertaking a study on how North Carolina can attract makers of turbines, blades, and other parts of wind machines meant for offshore projects. State environmental authorities included a call for such a study in their clean energy plan, which was requested by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and released in October. The department wrote in a call for consultants to lead the study, "The objective is to determine how North Carolina can successfully position itself to compete in [offshore wind], as well as pinpoint our state's advantages" for manufacturing, turbine staging, and assembly work at state ports. But North Carolina's anti-wind past may give potential investors pause, which could hamper the building of a local supply chain, which would be key to making the state a center for wind manufacture.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Food prices leap, and they are likely to remain high: The increases began in March as the first states locked down their economies in the face of the pandemic. The Department of Labor reported that the overall 2.6% jump in April food prices was the largest monthly increase since 1974. Prices for meats, poultry, fish and eggs rose 4.3%, with cereals and bakery goods rising 2.9%. Price hikes for staples such as flour and eggs have eased, while those for carrots, potatoes, and other produce have remained high because of transportation issues and the health of workers who pick crops. Given the situation at many of the nation’s slaughterhouses, the price of meat and poultry is likely to remain high for some time.
• Donations inundate bail funds for people arrests in protests of the police killing of George Floyd: There have been mass arrests in Minneapolis, Denver, Columbus, New York City, Louisville, and other cities where thousands of people are protesting recent police killings of Black citizens, including Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery. Keeping protesters out of jail always presents difficulties for activists, with the criminal justice system long used as a means to suppress dissent. In the current circumstances, local bail funds have have been deluged with support loosely organized on social media. Since the protests began, on Twitter and Instagram, people are matching each other’s donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit which provides cash bail for anyone who is sent to jail for pretrial detention because they can’t afford to bail themselves out.
• Sen. Warren and Rep. Haaland co-author op-ed on federal response to COVID-19 on Native reservations: American Indians and Alaska Natives already suffer disproportionately from health conditions and environmental injustices that make them more susceptible to complications during a pandemic. The Navajo Nation had infection rates higher than any state. In New Mexico, American Indians make up 11% of the population, but account for more than half of the COVID-19 cases. The Indian Health Service, underfunded and understaffed in the best of times, is suffering mightily during this emergency. Rep. Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and one of the two Democrats who are the first Native women to serve in Congress, knows the situation firsthand. She and Warren write:
By disregarding the clear health crisis in tribal communities, the federal government continues a tragic pattern of broken promises to Native nations. During negotiations over the Cares Act, the major coronavirus relief package passed by Congress in March, the White House fought against any direct aid to the 574 federally recognized sovereign Native nations. Even when Senate Democrats and the Congressional Native American Caucus successfully ensured the legislation included this critical economic aid, the Treasury Department dragged its feet for weeks. More than a month after the Cares Act was enacted, Native nations still hadn’t received a penny of the $8 billion the law provided to them. Only after we and our colleagues pressed the Treasury Department did it release some of the funds to tribal government