The upcoming propositions on the ballot.

[Oerdin]

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm

The California Secretary of State has certified eight Ballot Initiatives for this year's special election and since we don't have a thread on this topic I thought I'd make one. Here is a list of the eight propositions and the subject they deal with.

Prop 73 - Anti-Abortion intiative which would require a waiting period and parental notification for any woman under 18 to get an abortion. Numerous props like this have been shot down in the past but the far right keeps putting it back on the ballot. Previously they wanted the parents to have to give permission before a woman could have an abortion but the courts have thrown out that idea so now the freepers want a waiting period and notification so religious parents can brow beat young women into not getting an abortion.

Prop 74 - Changes teacher tenure rules so that they must make it through 5 years instead of 2 years before recieving tenure. The effect of this would be to make it easier to fire teachers if they didn't perform well though detractors say teachers could be fired for ideological reasons.

Prop 75 - Anti-Union prop pushed by Republicans. It would require unions to annually get prior written permission from every union member before any political donations or issue advicocy could be done with union money. This is a blatant attempt to cut off the single biggest source of donations for the Democratic Party and individual members who don't want their dues used for political purposes can already write in to exclude themselves.

Prop 76 - This is a very vaguely worded prop and after reading the Sec of State's on paragraph on it I still don't know what it will do exactly. It says that it will limit budget increases to the state budget to the average revenue growth of the previous three years which doesn't sound to bad, but, it then says vague things like "changes minimium school funding requirements" and "permits governor to reduce budget appropriations at governor's choosing". It doesn't even say how it would change funding for schools and many people are saying this would allow the governor to cut programs without any influence by the state assembly or senate.

Prop 77 - Instead of allowing politicians to make their own districts a panel of retired judges will be responsible for redistricting. The methods used by the judges is very completely written out and no political influences would be allowed. Our state does have a problem in that virtually all of the districts have been gerrymandered so that they are not competitive.

Prop 78 - Creates a discount perscription drug program for seniors and low income people in the state. I have no idea how it would work though we need some sort of coverage. I just hope it isn't a massive pork give away to corporation like the medicare drug benefit was; that program actually ends up costing seniors more in many cases and it lets drug companies charge medicare 2-4 times the market rate for any given drug. I sure hope this is not turned into corporate pork like medicare.

Prop 79 - A competing bill for medical drug discount coverage. This one would provide rebates to drug companies who took part in the discount program and would forbid companies who refuse to discount drugs from getting subsidies from medical. Sounds better then the first one to me but I need to read more.

Prop 80 - Reregulates the electrical market and requires modest increases in renewable power. Essentially recreates local monopolies then regulates prices and costs. Personally, I'm thinking the current system is pretty good now that the Republican placed loop holes which allowed Enron to crash the whole system have been closed.