Dan Walters at Calmatters.org has distilled the upcoming election for us noting that the candidate-based voting is a forgone conclusion, but the numerous initiatives is where the action will take place. I grew up in "Taxachusetts" but my home state has nothing on California. Squeezing more blood from the middle-class stone is on-going and the question is will this be the election where the backlash arrives? As Walters writes
The scale of the conflicts is most evident in an initiative, sponsored by the Business Roundtable and anti-tax groups, that would make state and local tax increases markedly more difficult to enact. It hits Democrats and their allied public employee unions where they live and they have mounted a two-pronged effort to block passage: a lawsuit, now pending in the state Supreme Court, to strike the measure from the ballot, and a competing proposition that would impose a higher and potentially prohibitive vote threshold on the tax measure.
On crime, he notes the ballot will include an "initiative that would modify Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced penalties for many crimes." I think of it as the "Walgreen's initiative" after hearing multiple instances of people walking out of the store on B'way with a garbage bag full of stuff. You want shampoo? Call a clerk to unlock it. Today's Comicle has a piece about some Safeway taking out the self-check kiosks and it ain't because they want to hire more checkers. Walters expects the backlash initiative to qualify. Further down the ballot:
Other high-profile measures either qualified or likely to qualify include a business-sponsored initiative that would repeal the Private Attorneys General Act, a two-decade-old union-sponsored law that makes class action lawsuits against employers relatively easy to file. Others include a third effort to make it easier for local governments to enact rent control, a boost in income taxes on high-income Californians to finance pandemic prevention, and an increase in the state’s minimum wage.
Talk about dumb and dumber. Let's mess up the rental market, the entry-level job market and kill the Golden Goose all in one fell swoop. There are five months to go. We shall see if the voters have had enough or if we get more of the same. Stay tuned.
