Legislating Election Fraud
SB 450 (Sen. Ben Allen) allows a county to conduct all-mail elections for any office, and allows anyone to collect and return vote by mail ballots. The only legitimate ballot is one you fill out by hand, and deliver in person. This ridiculous bill passed.
SB 1094 (Sen. Ed Hernández) requires initiative proponents to obtain 10 percent of all petition signatures from non-paid, volunteer circulators, unless the proponent is a union or non-profit organization. Why? Apparently this notice makes it all legit: “NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC: THIS PETITION IS BEING CIRCULATED BY A VOLUNTEER OR AN EMPLOYEE OF A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS PETITION BEFORE SIGNING.” It passed.
SB 1107 (Sen. Ben Allen) amends the Political Reform Act to allow state and local governments to adopt a system of taxpayer funded political campaigns. Blah blah blah.
SB 1298 (Sen. Bob Hertzberg) According to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, SB 1298 seeks to undermine Proposition 218’s requirement that storm water assessments must be approved by property owners via a mailed ballot election. Hertzberg’s legislation would make it easier to raise your property taxes. Also alters several terms in Proposition 26 (2010). Awaiting a vote in the Assembly.
AB 1084 (Asm. Susan Bonilla) prohibits charter schools from being operated by or contracting with for-profit entities. It is pending and has been gutted.
AB 2444 (Asm. Eduardo Garcia) unspecified General Obligation bond for parks, water, climate, and coastal protection and outdoor access. Requires voter approval.
Religious Liberty In Jeopardy
Ricardo Lara (photo from Fox News)
SB 1146 (Sen. Ricardo Lara) would eliminate the religious liberty of all California faith-based universities. Lara’s bill requires religious colleges and universities that receive state financial assistance or that enroll students who receive CalGrants to comply with the anti-discrimination laws that apply to state-related programs. Lara, an openly gay activist, claims religious universities practice discrimination againstLGBTQQIP2SAA. “All students deserve to feel safe in institutions of higher education, regardless of whether they are public or private,” Lara said in a statement in April. And the media reporting on this bill have been atrocious. A recent CalWatchdog storycharacterized opponent California MassResistance as “aims to limit the LGBT movement and organized the protests,” rather than “pro-family, that educates people to help them confront the attacks on the traditional family, children, religion, and society,” as their website explains.
Even Archbishop Jose Gomez and Bishop Charles Blake wrote an op ed titled, “California bill SB 1146 threatens minorities and the poor.“
Fortunately, the outcry over SB 1146 was so vast, Senator Lara amended SB 1146 to exclude provisions that threaten religious freedoms and keep Cal Grant students from choosing Christian schools. But be prepared – he will just come back next year with more legislation to get this passed.
Education Politics
AB 1732 (Asm. Phil Ting) require all single-user toilet facilities in any business establishment, place of public accommodation, or government agency to be identified as all-gender toilet facilities, and would authorize inspectors, building officials, or other local officials responsible for code enforcement to inspect for compliance with these provisions during any inspection.
AB 2792 (Asm. Rob Bonta) requires that there be a memorandum of understanding between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite claiming to authorize a local law enforcement agency to provide the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement with access to an individual if certain conditions are met.
AB 1887 (Asm. Evan Low) bans state-funded travel to states that pass laws deemed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (like every other state in the country?)
Phony Anti-BDS Bill
AB 2844 (Bloom) requires bidders on state contracts of $100,000 or more to certify that any policy that they have adopted against a nation recognized by the United States, including the nation of Israel, is not used as a pretext for discrimination in violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act or the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. This is the bill the Democrats hijacked from Assemblyman Travis Allen, and then they watered it down, taking all meaning out of it. Allen’s bill would have forbid all state agencies in California from contracting with companies “engaging in boycotts based on race, color, religion, gender or nationality,” in support of California’s long history of trading with Israel.
Business, Labor, and Taxation
SB 1166 (Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson) requires employers with at least 10 employees to provide 12 weeks of protected parental leave. This bill is identified as a “Job Killer” by the California Chamber of Commerce. Fortunately this bill failed to even pass in the committee process. Yeah, it’s that dumb.
Money Grab, Dude
AB 2243 (Asm. Jim Wood) imposes a tax on medical marijuana. Revenue from the tax would be divided between law enforcement, the Natural Resources Agency, government agencies, Department of Justice, and Department of Conservation. According to Wood, AB 2243 would levy a $9.25 per ounce tax on cannabis flowers, a $2.75 per ounce tax on cannabis leaves and a $1.25 tax on immature cannabis plants from nurseries. And funding goes to “the most impacted communities.”
Projected to raise nearly $80 million annually; funds will be distributed in the following areas:
- 30% to fund the Watershed Enforcement Team
- 30% for local law enforcement
- 30% for environmental cleanup on public and private lands
- 8% to restart state funding of the Williamson Act
- 2% to fund inter-agency regional enforcement coordinators within the Department of Justice
All Democrat-authored bills
