Sheila Kuehl: A decision on this proposition comes down to whether you think it important to know whether you are purchasing and ingesting food that has been genetically modified.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 36: Three Strikes
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rop 36 reduces the prison sentences for those who committed a non-violent, non-serious felony as their third strike. The new sentence would be twice the usual sentence for the crime they committed as a third strike.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 35: Sex Trafficking
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Sheila Kuehl: Prop 35 would also define crimes related to the creation and distribution of obscene materials with minors as a form of trafficking, including duplicating or selling such materials.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 33: Automobile Insurance Laws in California
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Sheila Kuehl: About 20% of California’s insureds would presumably see their rates go up because they had a lapse in insurance that didn’t fit into acertain categories.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 34
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Sheila Kuehl: This measure comes at the same time as a growing interest in the effects of solitary confinement in small, windowless, cells, on prisoners in state prisons.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 32: Neither Rich Nor Poor Can Sleep Under the Bridges of Paris
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Sheila Kuehl: The measure is crafted to look as though it is limiting the ability of both unions and corporations to make campaign contributions to candidates or measures, but, in truth, it would place a far greater burden on unions
Sheile Kuehl on Prop 31
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Sheila Kuehl:Prop 31 was designed to find ways to make government more efficient and responsive. Several critics have opined that Prop 31 doesn’t really accomplish the goal, but simply recycles a number of ideas that have been floated through the years without a good deal of empirical evidence on whether or not they accomplish their stated goals.
Shiela Kuehl on Prop 38
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Shiela Kuehl: Proposition 38, which amends state statutes (not the Constitution) to increase state income tax for any Californian earning more than $7316 a year, and allocates the increased revenues to K-12 education, state debt and early childhood education.
Sheila Kuehl on Prop 30
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Sheila Kuehl: The approach adopted by this measure is like holding a gun to your head and shouting “Stop me before I hurt somebody!”
Two Triggers: One Stuffed, One Deflated
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Although I have to admit I found it a bit creepy, the stuffed remains of Roy Rogers’ beloved steed was displayed on a Rose Parade float honoring Roy’s 100th birthday. Dangerously wobbling at the front of a somewhat over-the-top float, this Trigger, though dead, looked fat and healthy. The state budget Triggers, on the other [...]
Lame Duck Governor Fabricates Hoped-For Legacy
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Sheila Kuehl: From the beginning, Arnold Schwarzenegger has exhibited a woeful ignorance about the role of a Governor and the role of governance.
Water, Water, Everywhere, but Now We Stop and Think
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Given the breathless tone of the several press reports on the “great California water reform package”, you would have thought the Legislature had parted the waters, rather than simply passing five water bills.
As Ye Judge, So Shall Ye Be Judged
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I knew from experience that Sen. Poochiaign’s votes had consistantly indicated animosity to civil rights statutes regarding gender, disability and sexual orientation.
For a Man May Smile and Smile and Still Be a Villain
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“Why do they keep sending me budgets I won’t sign?”, the Governor asked, after saying no, once again, to any proposal but his own, cuts-only solution. And, since he had all the guns, no one in the Legislature asked in return, “Why does he keep refusing our budgets?”
Interpreting the Failure of Prop 1A
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Immediately after the election, the Governor announced that the “voters had spoken” and that the defeat of Prop 1A “clearly” meant that Californians stood adamantly against any new taxes or fees. He must have been reading the leaves in the bottom of his tea cup in order to come to a favored conclusion, however, because [...]
Prop 8 Ruling: The Measure of a Court
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Yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled on the validity of Proposition 8, the measure adopted by California voters last November to add a new section 7.5 to Article I of the California Constitution, as follows: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”. The measure was challenged by a [...]
Sheila Kuehl: My Take on California’s Propositions
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It seems pretty obvious that, whether the propositions pass or fail, they create a significant, but different, problem for the state. The total monies brought into the current budget by all the propositions together is about 6 billion dollars. However, over $5 billion of that revenue comes from the sale of the lottery. This makes [...]
California’s Budget: How Abel Raised Cain
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While the disciplined Assembly stood by in mid-February, waiting for the Senate to get its game on the field, the Senate speechified on the Floor and slept in the Big White Building. As in the familiar children’s game of musical chairs, the Governor and Senate President pro Temps Darrell Steinberg were simply looking for that [...]
The Magical Mystery Majority Budget
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On Thursday, December 18, frustrated with their inability to attract any Republican votes through long negotiations, both the State Assembly and the State Senate decided on an entirely different tack. They would pass a series of majority-vote bills to cut and change the current, 2008-09 budget. Though such a move would not get the state [...]
California Budget: What Happened Last Fall — The New Budget Immediately Starting Bleeding Red Ink
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The 2008-09 budget which was passed in September of last year ( two and a half months late) contained several overly optimistic (I would say wildly unsustainable) assumptions concerning revenue: First, it assumed the sale of over $3 billion in revenue bonds, but no one wanted to buy California bonds. Second, it “borrowed” from over [...]
The Push to Do Away With State Boards
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Literally from the first moment I walked into the California Legislature, and, probably, for years before that, my colleagues “across the aisle” (that is, Republican colleagues) have unceasingly advocated for the elimination of any and all state oversight boards. Pressed to articulate their reasons, they cite the usual mantra of “waste”, and insist that it [...]
A New Day In Health Access: Tom Daschle, Secretary of Health & Human Services
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Though he’s not yet confirmed, it looks like former Senator Tom Daschle will be joining President Obama (I so like saying that) in his Cabinet, heading up all the agencies that provide resources and oversight for America’s health and healthcare dollars. In addition, he will wear another, related, hat: heading up the new White House [...]
LAO Confirms Single Payer Reduces Health Care Spending, Contains Annual Growth
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This is my fifth essay for 2008. I interrupt my presentations on the current budget crisis to report on a confidential analysis of SB 840, my legislation creating a single payer health insurance system, requested by anonymous members of the Assembly [the requesters' names are not revealed, as a matter of course, by the Legislative [...]
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