As reported in previous Capitol Updates, last year the Democrats in our state legislature decided to eliminate propositions from the primary ballot. They know that conservative propositions are more likely to pass and liberal ones more likely to fail on a primary ballot because Republicans come out in more numbers to vote in primaries than Democrat voters do. So this June the primary ballot only has two propositions, two that qualified for the ballot before this new law took effect. These two ballot propositions are the last two to appear on a primary ballot. The CFRW has not taken a position on these two measures yet, but the CFRW Voting Body will very soon. The two propositions on the June primary ballot are Prop 28, limiting legislator’s term limits from 14 years to 12 years (with other provisions), and Prop 29, a cigarette tax for cancer research. The CFRW will analyze the propositions and our analysis will be available very soon. Stay tuned!
Governor Brown’s Budget Battle
It is no secret that Governor Brown released his 2012 budget with the hopes that voters will approve his multibillion dollar tax plan. Governor Brown has gone as far as to threaten that schools would face the equivalent of cutting three weeks of instruction if voters fail to pass his tax hike. But as the Legislative Analyst Office discovered last week, that may be an empty threat. Because California passed Prop 98 in 1988, the state is required by law to spend a minimum of 39% of the budget on K-12 education. The state has already cut as much as it can, constitutionally, from education. So for Governor Brown to suspend Prop 98, it would take a two-thirds vote by the legislature as well as some legally risky policy maneuvers. Governor Brown will not be able to hide behind his fear tactics for long. Remain educated and informed!
Democrats Sue for Back Pay
Last Tuesday the Legislative Democrat leaders filed a lawsuit against John Chiang, State Controller, for the pay they lost last year because they did not pass a budget on time. As you may recall, the voters passed Prop 25 in 2010, which requires the legislature to pass a budget by their constitutional June 15th deadline or risk losing their pay each day the budget is not passed. Last year the legislature passed a “budget” by June 15th, which Controller Chiang deemed unbalanced and he then withheld their pay. Democrat leaders Senate Pro Tem Steinberg and Assembly Leader Perez claim that Controller Chiang overstepped his role in taking away legislator’s pay while Chiang says he was enacting the will of the voters since the budget submitted was clearly not balanced. The legislators lost about $4,800 because they did not pass a budget on time. To give you perspective, California legislator’s base pay is $95,000 a year. This does not include approximately $30,000 in per diem payments. It is ridiculous that the Democrat legislative leaders have the arrogance to sue a bankrupt state for that amount of money. This clearly shows just how out of touch the Democrats in the legislature really are with the common California voter. This is the type of news we need to share with everyone we know!
CA Women’s Caucus Report
Written by our CFRW Intern, Jilian Plank!
On Wednesday, February 1, the Legislative Women’s Caucus (made up of primarily Democrat legislators) met to discuss the California budget proposal in the legislature. The Women’s Caucus heard the testimony of several women who spoke of the statistics involving the impact of the Great Recession and the budget crisis on California’s Women. Judy Patrick of the Women’s Foundation of California revealed that low-income women have been sharply affected by the budget crisis and disproportionately so. Jean Ross, the Executive Director of the California Budget Project, went on to point out some of the numbers that affect low income, specifically single parent women. She cited that all the employment gains for single mothers that have occurred in the past 11 years have been erased by the current budget crisis and that women have not shared equally in the economic recovery or modest employment gains that men have. Since the implementation of welfare reform, the employment rate of unmarried women has dropped 10 percentage points. Unmarried, single women with children have also lost an average of 2 hours per work week.
Later in the caucus, Ms. Ross pointed out that 82% of the drop in enrollment rates in community college students have been women. Sandy Gleysteen, the Chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women, provided the statistic that a woman in California only makes 84 cents to the dollar in comparison to men. All three women advocated for the increase of funding to CalWorks to help single women with children gain access to adequate childcare and higher education. In addition, all three women also advocated for the defeat of legislation in California that would negatively impact women. Senator Wright (D-Inglewood) asked the women, however, to come up with a successful alternative to the current budget. The Senator criticized them for not taking into consideration the limited amount of money California has and challenged them to find a way to allocate money from elsewhere to support the renewal of these proposed programs.
CRP Convention!
In just a couple of weeks the California Republican Party will be hosting their convention in San Francisco! It was just announced this week that presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will be a speaker and so will GOP Whip Congressman Kevin McCarthy. You won’t want to miss the convention! Click HERE to register and make reservations!
◼ California Federation of Republican Women
Carol Hadley, President
Allison Olson, Legislative Advocate
Disclaimer: The Capitol Update is an activity of the CFRW Advocate's Office. The update is for information only. CFRW official positions on legislation are stated immediately preceding the stated legislation or immediately following the stated legislation in this report.
