Warning: This diary may contain YELLING at Bob Dutton and criticism of Republicans that might hurt legislators’ feelings. If you are a Republican sufferring from male menopause, please strap yourself securely into your fainting couch.
When Jerry Brown offered a pension reform plan on Thursday, Bob Dutton responded with his newest ransom note. Most tellingly, he demanded that the people be allowed to vote to expand the Republican minority veto..
Senate Republicans believe taxpayers should be protected by a 2/3rd super majority vote of the Legislature to change the salary and benefits of public employees.
Republicans are now admitting that they they are so impotent and their party is so damn unpopular that they don’t expect to every be a majority party again. Instead, they want one more constitutional amendment to give them one more minority veto in the legislature. Maybe, just maybe they can hang onto one house for a few more cycles.
These are the same Republicans who prevented Californians from voting in June to extend taxes by a majority vote. And the tax extension wasn’t permanent, but instead had a sunset date.
It’s interesting that Dutton prefaced his new ransom list with polling results, confirming that Republicans understand that pension-bashing is the only issue where they have any support from California voters. Without this issue, their platform is extraordinarily unpopular with Californians. As a state, we just don’t believe in their program of bashing immigrants, despoiling the environment, destroying public education in favor of private charter schools, and more tax breaks for banksters, the ultra-wealthy, and the corporations that have been exporting our jobs.
Dutton’s statement didn’t indicate that even acceding to his outrageous pension reforms demands would gain him any more votes for putting tax extensions on the ballot. He still may demand his entire ransom list grew of 53 items including big issues like gutting environmental laws. another permanent budget cap in the state constitution, and protecting tax cuts for giant multi-national corporations at the expense of small business. That ransom list kept going, restoring $23 million in funding to rural state fairs,changing the date of the Presidential primary, protecting property tax breaks for agribusinesses, and preserving the waste and corruption in redevelopment.
Yo, Dutton, EVEN SOMALI PIRATES NEGOTIATE.
With or without Republicans, Brown will pass pension reform.
It’s on Like Donkey Kong
It’s time for Jerry to call his bluff, and let him start getting signatures. But for every initiative the Republicans propose, we need to put out two.
CFT has done polling and is ready to launch a 1% on the 1% tax inintiative, raising taxes on the wealthiest 1% by 1%. (Brilliant move, CFT).
Why not tap into the same populist anger against the bansksters and ceonistas and add a similar initiative that would restore the estate tax in California on the richest 1%, with the money going to support transportation? (No new toll roads, either)
With $4.00 gas, let’s go after the oil companies with an extraction tax specifically to support higher education.
And let’s step up and put a plan to modernize prop 13 on the ballot. Instead of driving seniors from their homes by cutting vital home health services, why not let billionaires like the Irvine Company’s Donald Bren pay the same percentage property tax as the poor schlub who buys one of the Irvine company’s houses.
And finally, let’s follow through with Brown’s plan to devolve more government to local authority like he promised. This is the best way to make the anti-tax districts of Republican legislators really pay for their anti-tax votes.
Fuck Dutton and the whiney-ass elephant that he rode in on
There are a bundle full of ideas in this posting and the best one is that for every one of their initiatives, we have two. One of the big problems with initiatives is the propensity to over reach, to put so much into one initiative that it can easily be attacked. With more initiatives that do more things, it is harder to attack any one initiative.
In theory, however, with a Democratic Governor and wide Democratic majorities in the legislature, maybe the only initiative we need is one that get’s rid of all supermajorities.
Speaks volumes. Love the ideas too. And though I understand the strategic points made by other posters, I’m getting really tired of Democrats being afraid of their own shadows. Let’s go for it! Public opinion is behind these ideas. It’s not like we’d be going all Wisconsin on the voters and proposing things they don’t support, or didn’t expect. That, I think Scott Walker has already proven is a bad, bad, idea. Ignoring the law too.
But none of these fall in those categories.
They’re much more popular than cutting state services with a chain saw. And they’re all more popular than the spending cap the governor is talking about–which voters already rejected once and Colorado voters already regret.
Face it, Republicans have extorted huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich for years during budget “negotiations.” They’ve bankrupted the state (which was, of course, the whole idea–the whole drown it in the bathtub thing). Now that people are aware of this and angry about it, we have a chance to change it.
Yes, prop 26 passed. Frankly, that was because average taxpayers felt they’re already paying more than their fair share. And they have a point. But the chance to spread the pain upwards? They’d go for that in a hot minute!
CEO pay and corporate profits both rose last year by over 25%, while the pay of the average worker has been stagnant for years, and years, and years. I really think that’s the only argument we’d need to make. Really.
We need another amendment to make a 2/3rds majority vote only apply to two things and only two things:
1. An over ride of a Governors veto.
2. Anyone wanting to create another 2/3rds based measure.
I love all these ideas too, because I’m another OC Progressive! But it reminds me of Jerry’s prediction to Skelton last month, of the initiative “war of all against all” that would happen if his 12/12 plan failed and he had to sign all-cuts. As Cal-Buzz summarized,
“Forces on the left will set out to soak the rich, slap taxes on oil drilling and services, split the property tax roll and give communities power to raise taxes with a majority vote. Forces on the right will seek to cap state spending, unravel collective bargaining rights of public employees, slash pensions, eliminate union shops and decimate social services and environmental regulations.”
So it was written, so let it be.