CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“STATE BALLOT PROVIDES PLENTY OF INCENTIVE TO VOTE”
There are occasional
elections where voters are not asked to decide very much – as in last March’s
primary where the presidential votes were not close and it was hard to find
other significant issues.
Things are very different
this fall.
Not only does the California
ballot feature a unique presidential choice with a former prosecutor facing off
against a convicted felon who's also a former President, but control of the
House of Representatives may hinge on several congressional races here and the
list of ballot propositions contains some that could create big changes for
many people.
Voting begins soon, as
mail-in ballots will start hitting mailboxes around California within the next
two weeks.
Plenty has been written here
and elsewhere about the congressional choices, where some races involve
Republicans who have won repeatedly in districts where Democrats hold
registration advantages. This means efforts by both parties to get their voters
to actually vote could decide who will control policymaking in Congress for at
least the next two years.
Polls indicate California’s
Senate race between Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey is no real
contest, with Schiff holding leads that average about 20 percent in virtually
every poll.
But the statewide questions
posed by 10 propositions provide fodder aplenty for voters to consider while
marking their ballots.
For some, the most
controversial of these is Proposition 5, placed on the ballot by state
legislators who want to make it easier for cities and counties to raise money
for affordable housing projects and infrastructure like sewers and bridges.
Since 1978, it has taken a
two-thirds majority vote of local voters to pass bonds for such projects, other
than schools, which for more than 10 years have needed only a 55 percent
majority to raise money for buildings and other causes.
Prop. 5 would lower the
passage threshold to that same 55 percent for many non-school projects, marking
a fundamental change in 1978’s tax-limiting Proposition 13. This one is
strongly opposed by the tax-fighting Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.
There’s also Proposition 6,
another issue placed on the ballot by legislators. It would end forced labor by
convicts in prisons and jails. If it passes, prisons could no longer compel
inmates – no matter what crimes they’ve committed – to work. Prisoners could
not be penalized for refusing assignments.
Of course, inmates could
still get credit toward earlier-than-normal release for things like serving on
fire-fighting crews, but they would have to be paid much more than the current
pennies per hour.
That would mark a major
change in prison life, giving convicts more choices and the chance at having
even more empty time to while away than now.
Rent control is also back on
the ballot, after voters twice earlier voted down statewide controls. Under
Proposition 33, local governments would not need approval from their own voters
to enact controls on residential property, not even on relatively new units
built since 1995 that are now exempt from most rent control. The concept of
vacancy decontrol of rents, allowing them to rise to market rates when tenants
move out, would also disappear; local officials could keep controls in effect
even when units are vacated.
Meanwhile, Proposition 34
goes after the tax-exempt status of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, aiming to
strip its non-profit status. It would also allow Medi-Cal to negotiate many
drug prescription prices for its clients, just as the federal Medicare system
recently did with several drugs used nationwide, including insulin.
And Proposition 32 would
raise minimum wages statewide to $18 per hour starting Jan. 1, less than two
months after Election Day.
There’s also the ballyhooed
Proposition 36, which aims to make felony prosecutions easier to conduct
against repeat shoplifters and thieves even if their take from any one episode
does not exceed the $950 bottom limit on the value of stolen goods needed for
felony processing.
At the very least, this all
presents a ballot that should be fascinating enough to hold voter interest for
the few minutes it takes to mark choices that might affect millions of lives
for many years to come.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net.
Suggested pullout quote: “The
ballyhooed Proposition 36, aims to make felony prosecutions easier to conduct
against repeat shoplifters and thieves.”
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