Senator Mark DeSaulnier is conducting four town hall meetings on the status of the California budget. I attended the one in Dublin. He used graphs to show the improvement in the state’s fiscal state and announced the improvement in California’s credit rating which will save us interest in use of bonds to fund
public projects. It is clear that Senator DeSaulnier plays a watchdog role in the expenditure of public money. He called attention to the Bay Area transportation planning agency's $170 million use of bridge toll money to buy and renovate a large San Francisco office building. He argued the real estate deal was an illegal use of toll proceeds. While he was unsuccessful in his bid to stop the Metropolitan Transportation Commission from going forward with relocating, I for one appreciate his vigilance.
During a Q and A on any topic, the Senator indicated that support for Single Payer has been postponed because of Jerry Brown and President Obama’s desire that California first put in place the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He has been a co-author of single payer for California. In my opinion getting insurance companies out of the picture is the most efficient way to deliver health care and lower costs. Single payer is often likened to Medicare for all.
He also indicated current support for the California Disclose Act, SB52. He co-authored a similar bill in the previous session. This important bill would require that political ads of all kinds clearly display the top three original donors.
No hiding behind names like Freedom and Blue skies for everyone. When voters know who is paying for the ads, they make far better judgments. California
has a long history of initiatives failing or passing because of hidden donors. It took 3 tries to ban smoking in restaurants and public buildings because a blizzard of ads paid for the tobacco companies masked as committees protecting individual freedom. The participation of tobacco companies was successfully exposed on the third attempt. Many initiatives supported by the public do not pass because of hidden donors to opposition ads. In fact, the conventional
wisdom for getting an initiative passed is that public support must be 60-70%
at the outset in order to have over 50% by voting day. The reason given is of course that ads by the opposition will diminish support by 10-15%. California is the only oil producing state in the country which does not have an oil extraction tax. It takes a 2/3 vote of both houses of the California legislature. (Given a dozen diners, you’ll not get 2/3 agreement on a restaurant.) A proposal for an extraction tax has been on the ballot. Despite the support of a majority of
Californians, it did not pass. Imagine if the ads in opposition had listed Chevron and Occidental Petroleum as the donors rather than a name like Californians
against higher taxes.
