Bill Deadlines
Yesterday was the deadline for bills to be introduced for this 2016 legislative session. Many of these bills are what are known as “spot bills”- placeholders for the bill author to fill in the bill’s language at a later date. It is a commonly used way for legislators to get around our state’s constitutional deadlines for bills. These “spot bills” will have a vague title, bill number, author, and a brief ambiguous description of the bill’s intent. Then after this deadline (and sometimes a few others), the bill’s author will add the language of the bill when the author has a better sense of what the legislation will shape up to be. You can learn about “spot bills” and a whole host of other legislative shenanigans at our Advocacy Workshop next weekend in Rancho Cordova. There is still time to send in your late registration! CLICK HERE for more information!
NASCAR Initiative
A ballot initiative is underway gathering signatures that would require legislators to wear the emblems of their top ten donors when they attend political functions. The “Name All Sponsors California Accountability Reform” or “NASCAR” (see what they did there?) has already gained 40,000 signatures of the 365,880 valid necessary to make it to our November general election ballot. The sponsor of the initiative, John Cox, hopes that increased transparency in political donations would curb some of the power held by large corporations and wealthy donors. This measure might have a different effect than intended here in California. Conventional wisdom tells us that big businesses support Republicans but in fact, in this state, that isn’t true. In the 2014 election cycle, Democrats received three times as much as Republicans, with a large portion of the funding from Kaiser Permanente and Anthem Blue Cross. So what do YOU think of the proposed measure? Helpful for transparency or stifling free speech?
Water Rights Woes
Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) introduced legislation to limit new well drilling in particular water-strapped groundwater basins. Property owners would have to obtain conditional permits and have to prove that the building of the new well would not have “undesirable impacts” on the land or water levels. 21 basins across the state would not be allowed to drill new wells at all. The persistent drought has required that agriculture and rural communities rely on groundwater more so than ever before. But this reliance has made scientists nervous that our aquifers may collapse and that makes Central Valley land very unstable. But again, legislation like this does little to fix the real problem at hand- providing water for all Californians through new storage projects. When Prop 1 (the Water Bond) passed, we were promised some of the money for new storage sites for critically needed water infrastructure projects. Instead Governor Brown is moving ahead with his twin tunnels project in the San Joaquin delta and High Speed Rail. In response to the Governor’s serious lack of perspective, a new initiative has begun circulation that would reallocate High Speed Rail bond money to water storage projects. The initiative proposes that $8 billion left over in bullet train bonds from 2008 and $2.7 billion approved by voters for Prop 1 passed in 2014 would instead be used for various water storage projects across the state, including raising the Shasta Dam and building two new storage sites. We will continue to monitor this and keep our members informed!
California Federation of Republican Women
Shirley Mark, President
Allison Olson, CFRW Advocate
