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MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM By Assemblyman Ray Haynes March 6, 2006Another Boondoggle
Do you remember Chuck Quackenbush? He was the insurance commissioner who lost his job because he used fines that he collected from insurance companies to buy television commercials to promote his political career. It was a huge scandal at the time, and Quackenbush, who was a colleague of mine in the Assembly, left his job in disgrace, having been run out of office by Legislative Democrats for abusing state money.
Another boondoggle is brewing, only this time Legislative Democrats are strangely silent.
A few years ago, Rob Reiner (“Meathead” from the old television series, “All in the Family”) sponsored an initiative to create a children’s health commission, funded by a fifty cent per-pack tax on cigarettes. This commission, called “First 5 California Children and Family Commission,” was intended to administer the money collected from this tax, and spend it on local health initiatives and early childhood development programs for children. The initiative has generated over $4 billion since it went into effect.
This year, Reiner is sponsoring an initiative to create mandatory preschool for all children, and proposes a one percent tax increase on rich people to pay for this program. Reiner is also the chair of the First 5 Commission.
Now the Commission is spending the money it collects through taxes on cigarettes to promote the Reiner preschool initiative. The commission has spent $23 million of your tax dollars on commercials for “Preschool for All” (which also happens to be the name of his initiative) in one of the largest state funded advertising programs ever. It has also spent $230 million on advertising and public relations firms that helped Reiner create the First 5 Commission, and it paid $206,000 of that tax money to three political consultants who had no contract with the state, but who became the campaign consultants for the preschool initiative. Reiner’s lawyer said the ads were “entirely legal and proper” because they do not expressly urge people to vote for or against the initiative.
You and I are paying for political consultants, television ads, and public relations operations that all promote a preschool program. They argue that since they don’t really say you should vote for such a program, this tax money was spent legally. That is dangerous. As further evidence of this commission’s intent to aid the initiative, the public relations firm that did the proposal for the ads said that “while the [commission] should not advocate on behalf of the initiative” the goals of the “Preschool for All” program would have to be achieved through legislative or electoral action.
This is political spin for “We want to spend the tax money on our political operation; we just want to fool people into thinking it is legal.”
So where are the cries of outrage? Quackenbush was wrong. Reiner is wrong. Reiner, as chair of the Commission, has specifically pushed the state to pay for his political campaign. He should lose his job, and reimburse the state for the $253 million he spent to push his boondoggle on the people of the state of California.
If this were a Republican initiative, the howls of protest would echo throughout the state. However, since this is a tax increase, and an attempt to create a whole bunch of new government jobs (with the forced union dues that come along with those jobs), the lefties in Sacramento have fallen silent.
The only way to stop this kind of boondoggle is to register your displeasure at the ballot box. I hope you will show up at the polls, and tell Mr. Reiner exactly what you think of his attempt to deceive you with your tax dollars. And since I didn’t expressly advocate a vote for or against the initiative, this commentary is legal.
So there Mr. Reiner. ******************************
Even In Flush Times, Politicians Can’t Help Overspending http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14221853p-15047431c.html 02-24-06 The good news is that California's economy is outpacing everyone's expectations - including those of the state's most distinguished economists - and generating copious amounts of jobs, corporate profits and government revenues. The bad news, as the Legislature's independent budget office says in its new analysis of the 2006-07 budget, is that state spending has been rising just as fast, and the state's chronic deficits will continue indefinitely.
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Costly Comp (Click to follow the link) 02-24-06 Three ballot initiatives now circulating propose changes to the workers' comp system that would burden California employers with huge costs. California businesses don't need that kind of hindrance. The measures follow a January study that found recent state reforms cut $8.1 billion from the workers' comp system. That money can now go to jobs and business expansion instead of toward inflated premiums for mandatory insurance to cover on-the-job injuries.
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Highway Program Moves Ever Closer To Pork Barrel Politics http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14223064p-15048280c.html 02-27-06 Anyone who's familiar with private land development and public transportation construction knows that the two are intrinsically connected and their symbiosis creates greater potential for political chicanery. As California embarked on its massive and historic expansion of its highway system after World War II, it wisely maintained layers of political insulation on where and when the projects could be built.
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Driver’s License Overhaul Could Prove Exasperating http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/NEWS01/602240321/1001 02-24-06 The state's 24 million drivers aren't likely to have to scrap their existing licenses all at once. That's the good news emerging from a legislative hearing Thursday on the federal Real ID Act. The bad news is that they're probably going have to stand in long lines to pay even more money for a new license that will not likely make them any safer. Congress passed the Real ID Act in May as a way to combat the security breaches that make terrorism easier; one of the terrorists in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks used a fake driver's license.
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The States Of Eminent Domain http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1016750.php 02-27-06 It has been just over a year since the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kelo v. the city of New London (Conn.) and eight months since the high court ruled in favor of cities. Yes, the high court ruled, New London and other municipalities were within their constitutional bounds to use eminent domain to take property from homeowners and business owners and give it to developers who promise economic and tax benefits to the city.
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A New, Real Fiscal Crisis http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14223112p-15048309c.html 02-27-06 Say you were run over by a truck and badly injured 30 years ago. You have just awakened from a long coma when someone hands you a bill for $70 billion. That's a very rough analogy to what's about to happen to the state. New federal accounting rules require California and every other state in the nation to add up the costs of providing promised health care benefits to public employees after they retire and to devise a plan for how to pay for those benefits.
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Prison Guards Lock Up Bundle In Overtime Pay http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060228-9999-1n28guards.html 02-28-06 Roughly one out of 10 California prison guards was paid more than $100,000 last year, fueled largely by a jump in overtime. Some 2,400 rank-and-file correctional officers' pay exceeded $100,000 in 2005, compared with 557 the year before, a San Diego Union-Tribune analysis of payroll figures shows. One guard grossed $187,000, making him the highest-paid correctional officer in California, according to data provided by the state controller's office.
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S.F. – Handgun Ban Delayed Until At Least June 19 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/28/BAGU9GJEFL1.DTL 02-28-06 The city will delay enforcement of a voter-approved ban on handgun possession and gun sales until at least June 19 while a judge considers a National Rifle Association lawsuit challenging the measure, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Monday. The delay was requested last week by Superior Court Judge James Warren, who has until June 19 to rule on the validity of Proposition H, which city voters approved in November. The ordinance prohibits handgun possession by city residents.
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Meathead Economics
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008026
02-28-06
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Will State School Board Stand Tough? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/03/EDGU9GJEP11.DTL 03-03-06 As tough as I've been on former Gov. Gray Davis, I've taken pains to single out his remarkable efforts to fix the public schools and their disastrous teaching methods, even in the face of intense opposition by labor unions and his own California Democratic Party. With Davis gone, leading Democrats in Sacramento are shamefully gearing up for another major assault to roll back public-school reform. And it's not at all clear that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is as focused as Davis was on stopping them.
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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066 To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to: Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!
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