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January 30, 2010
Ballot Watch 2010
Yesterday was the last day for proposed initiatives to qualify for the June primary election. Three state constitutional amendments and two statue measures made it on the ballot. Here is what you will be voting on:
Prop 13: Property Tax: new construction exclusion: seismic retrofitting
Prop 14: Top-Two Primary Elections: Open Primaries
Prop 15: Political Reform Act of 1974: California Fair Elections Act 2008
Prop 16: New Two-Thirds Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers
Prop 17: Allows Auto Insurance Companies to Base Their Prices in Part on a Driver's History of Insurance Coverage
The CFRW will be reviewing these measures and will make our voting recommendations in the coming months. Watch for this information in upcoming Capitol Updates. For more information on the qualified initiatives, visit the Secretary of State’s website here .
Budget Battle 2010
Earlier this week, Governor Schwarzenegger suggested off the cuff that to save money in prisons, we should send illegal immigrants back to Mexico. While he may have a valid point, his office said that the Governor has no concrete plans to do that; but he is working on other possible solutions to fix our prison problem. One of those possible solutions is acquiring $880 million dollars from the federal government to spend on illegal immigrants in our prisons. If California gets this money, it would cut the corrections budget by 12.7%. Governor Schwarzenegger already knows what he wants to do with all that saved money: spend it on education. The Governor has proposed a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution requirement that no more than 7% of the general budget be spent on corrections and no less than 10% be spent on the University of California and the California State Universities. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office advised Legislators to reject the Governor’s proposal, citing that it is unnecessary to put percentage caps within the budget when it may be harmful in the future.
Obamacare in CA: They Are Trying Again!
The national opposition to universal healthcare has fallen on deaf ears within the California, because last week Senator Mark Leno (D-3) introduced SB 810: Single-payer health care coverage. And just yesterday it passed out of the Senate and is on its way to the Assembly. The CFRW OPPOSES this bill! The legislation would create a $225 billion-a-year healthcare system, and would cost $100 billion in the first six months just to get it off the ground. For a reference, our current general budget is about $89 billion. So how do Senate Democrats propose we pay for this? They don’t know yet, but they would establish a commission to come up with creative ways to find money. The cost of the commission? Only $2 million. The Governor vetoed a similar bill in 2008, but let’s stop this before it gets to the Governor’s desk!
Contact your Assembly members NOW and ask them to OPPOSE this bill! We can send a message to our law-makers that we do not want government-run healthcare in any form!
President Hedstrom’s Response to the State of the Union
Our new CFRW President, Mariann Hedstrom, has issued a statement regarding President Obama’s State of the Union. Here are her remarks:
As conservative women of California, we were thrilled to hear President Barack Obama begin his State of the Union speech stressing that jobs would be his top focus in 2010. We wholeheartedly agree with his statement that the "true engine of job creation is America's businesses." However, as the President continued his address, it became clear that his agenda still focuses on more government regulation, more spending, and taxes associated with climate change-all impediments to job creation. Such continued focus on “cap and trade” energy taxes and the current health care proposals will be contrary to his top priority of putting Americans back to work and will be the breaking point for many small businesses.
Here in California, our need for jobs is at a critical juncture. We currently have a state unemployment rate of 12.4% with some counties as high as 27%. This unemployment rate actually equates to over 2.2 million people without work. Many of these people are women like us, women that want the opportunity to pursue the American dream. In order to do that, we need the federal government to get out of the way. Already, our tax rates and state regulations have caused many of the wealthier tax payers and businesses to flee this wonderful state, and we desperately need to reverse such a trend. California's past actions of increasing government spending and raising taxes serve as a true test case of what the federal government should not do. Instead, the federal government needs not only to provide tax relief for our businesses but also tax cuts for all. Such cuts will allow employers, especially small businesses, to create jobs and allow us to generate personal income. History has proved this works. We can then use this income to educate our children, pay our mortgages, make our homes more energy efficient, and help the less fortunate without the government taking over these responsibilities. In other words, let us, the people, prosper and then California prospers. After all, our forefathers chose the words "We the people" and not "We the government" to begin the preamble of United States Constitution. In that the President is our leader in upholding the constitution outlining our governing principles, we hope that he gives "we the people" and our businesses the tax relief to succeed.
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.
California Federation of Republican Women
Mariann Hedstrom, President
Palm Desert, Indian Wells,
Bermuda Dunes, Thousand Palms,
La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indio and Coachella.