California Ballot Initiatives

Proposition 8:  Do you hate gays and lesbians?  Do you believe in imposing your religious values on other people?  If the answer to both of these questions is "yes", then by all means vote for Proposition 8 and put discrimination into the California constitution.  Don't kid yourself, though: a vote for 8 is a vote for hate.

Proposition 4: See previous blog post.

Proposition 1A:  I'm probably going to vote for this one.  A high-speed rail system would do a lot to lower California's carbon profile (already the lowest in the nation) and it would be way cool to be able to take a 5-hour train ride to LA on a day's notice.  However, I am somewhat dubious about our ability to pay for the rail system in the current economy, but at least labor should be cheap if we get started real soon.  Also, Quentin Kopp, a notorious fiscal conservative, is in charge of this one, so we can be somewhat confident that spending will be kept under control.

Proposition 2: it's a frightening thing to realize that it's not already law that food animals have enough room to turn around in their pens.  No wonder our meat keeps getting contaminated.  Vote yes.

Proposition 3: I'm not real strongly decided on this one.  Children's hospitals do great things and are very important. However, there are questions about where the money from this bond will be spent (80% of recipients are private hospitals), and California is currenty in debt.  I will probably vote no, hoping that the hospitals come back next year with a smaller bond.

Proposition 5: Drug courts, which offer diversionary treatment instead of jail, are better at rehabilitation, and cheaper than prisons.  It's a win-win.  Vote Yes.

Propositions 6 and 9:  These two propositions are "lock the door and throw away the key" law enforcement propositions.  California has a larger portion of our population in prison than China does, and we spend more on prisons than we do on education.  The madness has to stop.  Ironically, the main financial sponsor for these bills (Henry Nicholas) is currently facing charges of date rape and pimping.  So at least if they pass, he'll get to be one of the first people to suffer for them.  Vote No.

Propositions 7 and 10: these are both attempts to hijack our state's current mania to finally fix our environment for private benefit.  Each initiative would take billions in state green money and funnel it into a single company's pockets.  Vote No.

Proposition 11:  California needs redistricting reform, as do most of the states in the US (though none more than Texas).  However, we don't need this reform.  Just open your voter booklet and try to make sense of the process by which committee members would be selected ... it takes a full page to describe (with diagrams), yet contains no protections against discrimination, conflict-of-interest, or geographic bias.  The voting procedure is even worse.  Smells like someone's trying to rig something.  Vote No.

Proposition 12:  This bond simply continues the Cal-Grants program for veterans which the state has had for over a decade.  While there are questions about eligibility (there's no income limit), given the current collapse of the housing market discontinuing a state-funded source of low-interest loans is probably bad.  I'll be voting yes.

San Francisco City Propositions

I'm only going to write about the few I have a strong opinion about.  The rest I'll just tell you how I'm voting.

H: Yes!  For over a century PG&E has made billions by illegally continuing a private monopoly based on selling publicly owned power.  It's time to break that monopoly ... and green the city in the process.  Of course, PG&E can hold on to their fiefdom if they're willing to do some renewable energy, but they'd rather spend $5million opposing the initiative.

B: Yes.  Over the last 10 years, I've watched the population of San Francisco get older.  Twentysomethings, students and people with kids can't afford to live in the city anymore.  If we don't do something about real affordable housing (and we know Newsom won't), then the whole city could be come a sterile suburb of middle-aged yuppies: La Jolla with fog.

K: Yes. Decriminalizing sex work is the next step to regulating and taxing it.  That would fix our budget!

P and S: No, No!  Thanks 8 years of corrupt, cronyist government by Willie Brown, the board of supervisors stripped away the power of the mayor to appoint commissioners and spend money as he wishes, without oversight from the Board or the citizens.  Newsom is trying to get that power back so that he can reward his cronies with high-paying make-work government positions ... and destroy public transportation and affordable housing in the process.  Vote no on both.

Q: Yes. Tax tiny businesses less, lucrative partnerships more.  I'm voting for this even though I'll be one of the people taxed.

Voting Yes: A, D, E, J, M, N, O, T, U

Voting No: L, V

Still not sure how to vote: C, I, R

Sources of information for my opinions: official voter booklets, San Francisco Bay Guardian, SFGate.com, Central City Progressives, KALW radio, and various blogs.