(Congratulations to Asm. Dave Jones for winning the annual “Job Killer” Sweepstakes. Jones leads the pack with 4 bills on the list of bills that protect workers and Californians. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

By Dave Johnson, Speak Out California

The California Chamber of Commerce has released its annual list of what it calls “job-killer bills.”  

Why is it that the Chamber’s job-killer bills hit-list seems to only target Democrats? Not a single targeted bill belongs to a Republican. “Bad bills”, like those designed to protect public health, climate concerns or consumer rights legislation, are all authored by Democrats.  The chamber has always been a lobbying organization, but it has gotten so bad that the Chamber seems to have devolved into little more than just one more fear-mongering Republican Party front group.

The “job killers” on this list are any laws that protect consumers, reduce energy use, require worker protections or anything else that might hinder a very few corporate executives from reeling in another several-hundred-million dollars a year.  The jobs that are “killed” are those of lobbyists for the energy industry.  

The first group on the “job killer” list is bills that ask for any kind of energy or water conservation or environmental standards for new housing construction.  For example, AB 1085.  The bill describes itself as undating,

“building design and construction standards and energy conservation standards for new residential and nonresidential buildings to reduce wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy.”

But the Chamber’s job-killer list says this

Substantially increases the cost of housing and development in California by implementing significant energy efficiency measures

Now, think about this — if it costs less to heat and cool your house, this saves you money.  If you want to add energy-saving technology like solar electric or water-heating on your house this creates good jobs.  Maybe Exxon won’t benefit as much from this as the new, upcoming solar industry, but heck, the solar companies aren’t coughing up the big bucks and providing the good jobs to the Chamber of Commerce’s lobbyists!

The next group of “job killers” is “workplace mandates” like paid sick leave for employees, disability pay for on-the-job injuries or providing California’s citizens with health insurance.

Ah yes, the money businesses pay out to provide sick leave and disability pay for those pesky employees “kills jobs.”  They could hire so many more people if they didn’t have to actually pay them and keep them from getting injured!  This is one of the oldest arguments in the books.  Slaves are always cheaper.  But why do we have an economy if not to provide US with good jobs and other benefits?  Do we have an economy so a very few corporate CEOs get all the money and benefits, or do we have an economy so the people can also get good pay and benefits and safe working conditions?  The evidence (this, for example) is clear that good wages and benefits do not hurt jobs or the economy.

Then there are “economic development barriers” like asking online retailers to collect the same sales taxes that you local business owner collects, asking the wealthy to help pay for our schools, raising fire standards in high-risk fire areas and protecting our environment.  I guess the online retailers must be paying the Chamber more this year than the retailers who have to actually rent storefronts and pay wages in your town.  I can’t think of any other reason why SOME retailers should collect sales taxes and others should be exempt.  Doesn’t this change the playing field waaayyy in favor of online retailers and harm the prospects of businesses that actually set up in our local communities?  God forbid we ask them to help pay for our schools and police and fire protection!

This “job killer” list is nothing more than the use of fear to scare us into allowing a few rich corporations to have their way.  By saying that protecting workers or the environment might “cost jobs” they are trying to make us afraid to ask these big corporations to live up to their responsibilities to our communities.  How long will we let these lobbyists make us afraid?

Click through to Speak Out California

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has had the chance to review the May Revise and the verdict is not good. While Frank Russo notes that she agrees with the revenue projections, her assessment of Arnold’s lottery borrowing plan and his failure to address the structural revenue shortfall are major flaws in the proposal.

In her assessment of the lottery borrowing plan, she notes that not only does Arnold overestimate the likely sales of lottery tickets, but that by doing so his borrowing plan actually puts education at even greater budgetary risk:

While the administration acknowledges that there is no way to know for sure how much the proposed changes would increase lottery profits, its forecast model assumes that such profits would grow from $1.2 billion in 2007-08 to over $2.4 billion at some point between 2013 and 2017. This means that total lottery sales would increase from $3.4 billion to over $7 billion during this five- to ten-year period. In so doing, per capita sales would approach the national average, according to the administration’s assumptions. This assumed increase in lottery sales allows the administration to forecast that debt service will be paid in full each year and public education will receive a distribution of $1.2 billion annually. If, on the other hand, lottery sales and profits did not grow as much as forecast by the administration, bondholders would continue to receive payments, but public education would experience a drop in lottery payments.

If that wasn’t damning enough, she then points out that Arnold’s plan to divert general funds into reserves without first addressing the structural revenue shortfall will lock that shortfall permanently into place:

Under our revenue estimates, the administration’s revenue cap leads to counterproductive results-the required deposit of General Fund monies into a new reserve at the same time that the state faces multibillion dollar shortfalls. The cap also could prevent the state from accessing some of the lottery proceeds intended to help solve the budget problem. As a result, the administration’s reforms could lock the state’s operating shortfall in place and lead to automatic multibillion dollar across?the?board reductions.

The LAO provides an alternative set of solutions, claiming to be able to “maintain state services at their July 1, 2007 level” especially in the area of health care, where destructive cuts are being proposed.

Obviously Arnold’s proposals are nonstarters. And perhaps the LAO’s damning assessment of Arnold’s lottery borrowing plans will help the Legislature turn to the more fundamental and long-term solutions of new revenues. California can no longer maintain the fiction that tax increases can be avoided if we are to stay competitive in the 21st century global economy.

Based on an XPost 5/19/2008 12:00 AM PDT on MyDesert.com in BluePalmSpringsBoyz blog

Greg Pettis, Cathedral City Councilmember for more than 13 years, former Cathedral City Mayor Pro-Tem, and Democratic Candidate for the CA 80th Assembly District has again and again shown his ongoing and indefatigable support for the issues that are important to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.  As indicated in earlier posts, Pettis is the only Candidate for the 80th AD, Democratic or Republican, to consistently and openly support Marriage Equality and Civil Rights for all members of the LGBT community.  His opponent Rick Gonzales and Richard Guttierez have stated in public forums such as Democratic Club Candidates’ forums that each would vote ‘nay’ on Marriage Equality.  Victor Manuel Perez has refused to indicate in public whether or not he would vote for Marriage Equality if elected and shied away from answering directly at the same forums (his surrogates say that Perez supports ‘gay marriage,’ but Perez has not indicated that he would ever vote ‘yea’ on Marriage Equality in the Assembly.  When his Campaign Director ‘informed’ members of the Desert Stonewall Democrats that Perez supported ‘gay marriage,’ members erupted in incredulity).

More below the flip…

Pettis again showed his thorough support for the LGBT community by attending the Desert Business Association Mixer at the Desert AIDS Project tonight.  Pettis’ street cred in the LGBT community includes his long-standing membership in the Desert Business Association (http://www.dbaps.org/about_us.asp), the

Coachella Valley’s gay chamber of commerce, a network of gay and gay-friendly businesses, which have joined together to promote and support each other and to educate the community about the many services and products available through our gay-friendly stores, hotels, restaurants and other business ventures. The organization began in 1979, and over time, the DBA connected with mainstream Chambers of Commerce in the many business-oriented communities throughout the Coachella Valley.

Today, the DBA serves as a valley-wide business organization and new businesses are eager to affiliate, to participate in the m! any benefits of membership and to share in their responsibilities for networking with other business organizations and associations across the valley.

His support for universal healthcare includes support for the full funding for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.  Thus Pettis’ interest in attending the Desert AIDS Project Mixer tonight, including the extensive tour of their facilities lead by David Brinkman, Executive Director of the Desert AIDS Project.  Pettis is the only Democratic candidate for the 80th AD to attend this Mixer and to visit and tour the Desert AIDS Project facilities.

The Desert AIDS Project (http://www.desertaidsproject.org/)

provides medical care and comprehensive support services to people living with HIV/AIDS in the desert community.  Free, confidential, rapid-result HIV testing is available, as well as counseling, home health services, legal assistance and assistance with housing, medications, food, re-employment and more.  Prevention and education outreach is available to any group.  As a fundraiser, D.A.P. operates its five Revivals resale marts…

Desert AIDS Project meets the evolving medical and social service needs of people living with HIV/AIDS by providing direct services and advocacy, while working to prevent new infections through education and outreach.

Desert AIDS Project has earned a national reputation as one of the most comprehensive HIV/AIDS services providers in the U.S. We are one of only a handful of AIDS agencies operating an on-site medical clinic, a full range of client support services, and a comprehensive HIV education and prevention program, including anonymous HIV testing.

Since our founding in 1984, Desert AIDS Project has grown to become the primary provider of direct medical and support services to HIV-affected men, women, and children throughout the desert region.

Pettis is also a business member as Cathedral City Councilmember of Desert Women for Equality, a 501(c)(3) non-profit tax exempt organization which provides free mobile mammograms to uninsured and underinsured women in the Coachella Valley.  Desert Women for Equality’s (http://www.desertwomenforequality.com/)

mission is to improve the health and welfare of Lesbians and all women in the Coachella Valley through education and philanthropic activities.

In his commitment to DWE and the Lesbians and all women of the Coachella Valley, Pettis has worked assiduously with Cathedral City Mayor Cathy DeRosa (R) and Cathedral City Councilmember Chuck Vasquez (R) to obtain funding from Cathedral City to finance free mobile mammogram clinics in Cathedral City.  (Pettis also has the endorsement for State Assembly of the California-National Organization of Women because of his support for a woman’s right to choose, unlike his opponents who are again equivocal in support of women’s rights).

Because of Pettis’ support for the LGBT community, his experience in office, and his ability to deliver for the community, Pettis has the support of most openly-gay and openly-lesbian electeds and activists in the West Valley, East Valley, and Imperial Valley.  His supporters include Palm Springs City Councilmember Ginny Foat, Palm Springs City Councilmember Rick Hutcheson, Desert Hot Springs City Councilmember Karl Baker, Candidate for Palm Springs Unified School District Greg Rodriguez, Cathedral City Councilmember and Candidate for Cathedral City Mayor Paul Marchand, the Desert Stonewall Democratic Club, Desert Stonewall Democratic Club Treasurer Bob Silverman, Desert Stonewall Democratic Club Activist Bill Cain-Gonzales, Palm Springs Democratic Club Co-Chair Sandy Eldridge, Palm Springs Democratic Club Co-Chair David Pye, Palm Springs Democratic Club Secretary Peter East, and many others.

Pettis also has the endorsements of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Equality California (EQCA) due to his consistent and steadfast support of the LGBT communities and their issues.  Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, with a history of not endorsing in primary elections, is co-hosting Pettis’ fundraising event with Foat and Hutcheson later this month with U.S. Rep. Barney Frank as headliner.  Former-Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden is the only openly-gay elected to not endorse or support Pettis’ candidacy.

Again, kudos to Pettis for his ongoing, open, and steadfast commitment to not only the LGBT community and to their values and issues, but also to the vast numbers of men and women in the Coachella Valley who do not benefit from having health insurance.

That’s right.  Gary, Charlotte and I went for our first precinct walk this weekend together in Aliso Viejo, California.  Oh man, not a good weekend to start, it was very hot and we waited until early evening to grab walking shoes and knock on doors in our very own neighborhood.  Why not start where we live?  Our community is in the heart of the 33rd State Senate district.

This will be our cheapest and best way to get the word out about Gary’s campaign and for now we are knocking on all the doors.  Republicans, Declined to States and Democrats.  We’ve found Republicans to be very receptive to meeting the candidate, especially when it’s quite doubtful that the Republican candidate will do any walking at all.  

And this is the best lesson we learned, talking to people is the best way to get them to vote for you.  And we even found some lovely Democratic neighbors who want to donate and volunteer.  What more can a grassroots campaign ask for?

It was a busy weekend for us all.  We started Saturday with haircuts for Charlotte and Gary.  It’s summer here so it was the annual cut a good four inches off of Char’s hair.  She gets her summer bob and Gary got a nice cut as well.

I found out I talk a bit too much 🙂  But that’s me and I don’t just talk, I listen.  Some of my favorite reactions were, “Go, go.  You’ve got my vote, I vote Democratic down ticket, Democrat, Democrat and Democrat!”  and then there was my favorite family of four.  Mom was reading The Huffington Post when I came up.  Her husband pointed out that they had a bumper sticker that said, “Vote Dem”.  But I still wanted to talk to them!  We need money and we need people to help us walk these precincts.  It’s all good time to me when it comes to speaking to people one on one.

Then Sunday came and we went to the Kick Off Party for Loretta Sanchez who is seeking her fourth Congressional term for central Orange County.  She was amazing, I was just so impressed with her humor and wit.  She also walks precincts religiously.  There is no such thing as a “safe” seat for Democrats in Orange County and Loretta understands how important it is to go out and talk to people.  When she won her first election twelve years ago she personally knocked on 65,000 doors.

I had a chance to introduce myself and she was so happy to hear about a Democrat running for office in Orange County and a Democrat that was stepping up to get the “D” on the ballot.  She held my hand while we talked, not awkward and was so involved with ME.  I did not take much of her time but I just wanted to let her know that we were so honored to be there and so proud to call ourselves Democrats because of all the great work she had done on behalf of the County and her district.

Since I’m the worst campaign volunteer ever, I can’t get any of my photos to upload but, I do have a photo from the Ed Chau campaign of Gary and Ed Chau, one of two Democrats running in the 42nd district (The other is well known here at Daily Kos, Ron Shepston is also running.  It’s a very tight race and both my husband and I have not endorsed, we are torn!).   Below is a photo of Gary and Ed taken by Ed’s Campaign Director (Yes, Congressional candidates have CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR, I’m so envious) Drew Cornick.

So what are the Republicans doing that are running to win in November? (There is such a thing as a safe seat for Republicans and it’s assumed that whomever wins in the Primary will most certainly win in November).  They are trading ridiculous claims and throwing around the word “liberal” like it was something heinous.  What is the winner going to call Gary?  A communist.

Below is the most egregious of the attack mailers, this one sent by Mimi Walters against her opponent Harry Sidhu.  It’s not subtle and it’s racist, clear and simple.  This race is catching eyes up in Sacramento too for being a little to nasty and locally it’s getting attention for the very same reason.

I’m still trying to raise $5,000 for Gary this month.  And as I speak he’s working on a letter to the Fort Mojave Tribe to ask for their support (Gary is a Tribal Member) as well as sending request for donations to all the organizations that have endorsed him and the people he’s personally met.  This is what I do, I blog and this is how I’m trying to help Gary at least make a dent in this so called “safe” seat.  He’s going to work hard and knock on as many doors as he can by the November election but we need door hangers, fliers and mailers and we need to hire someone to help out his frazzled wife who has a full time job.

Please support a fellow Democrat who stepped up to put a “D” on the ballot and who is willing to go out and talk to people, face to face, to get their votes.