Friday, June 29, 2012

CFRW Capitol Alert: Governor Brown Signs the Budget

On Wednesday of this week Governor Brown signed the budget that our Democrat majority legislature sent to him on June 15th. As you will recall, the Democrats sent Governor Brown just a shell of a budget on time, in order to still receive their paycheck per Prop 25 rules. The rest of the budget sat in “trailer” bills, which the legislature passed at their leisure two full weeks after the constitutional budget deadline. These trailer bills contained the functionality of the budget and decide what the $96 billion spending plans looks like. The Governor has not yet disclosed his line-item vetoes; those are expected to be released next week. The budget still holds Governor Brown’s trigger cuts if the voters do not pass his tax measure come November. But this week the Democrats gave Governor Brown a leg up on the November ballot in one of the many trailer bills. Democrats changed the Elections Code to move constitutional amendments proposed by voter initiative to second position on the ballot, just below bond measures. Since the November Water Bond will likely get pushed back to another election, Governor Brown’s tax measure (a constitutional amendment proposed by voter initiative) will get top billing. Next on the ballot are statutory changes placed by the legislature and finally initiatives that do not make constitutional amendments (such as Molly Munger’s competing tax measure). Below is the Democrat’s reasoning for this elections change:

“The Legislature finds and declares that bond measures and constitutional amendments should have priority on the ballot because of the profound and lasting impact these measures can have on our state."

But now it looks like there might be some legal battles regarding this maneuver. Both Molly Munger and possibly the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will look to sue in order to block Governor Brown’s tax measure from getting top billing on the ballot. It is a political belief that top spot on a crowded ballot is advantageous and with 11 qualified ballot measures, the ballot order will be very important. The Legislature goes on their summer recess next Friday. What perfect timing, no?

Senator Kehoe Is At It Again!

Earlier this year our Republican Women helped to defeat SB 1338 (Kehoe, D), a bill that would have allowed mid-level healthcare professionals to perform abortions. The CFRW sprang into action and called the Senate Health Committee members, urging them to vote no and protect women’s health rights! Two Democrats on the committee abstained from a vote, effectively killing the bill. We had a big hand in this victory! Now Senator Kehoe is at it again, by gutting a bill originally introduced as boat and water pollutant legislation and amending it to extend an abortion pilot project to 2014. Nurse practitioners, midwives and physician’s assistants will be learning to perform abortions. The new bill is SB 623 (Kehoe, D) and the CFRW OPPOSES this new, sneaky attempt by Senator Kehoe. This bill will be heard in the Assembly Health Committee on July 3rd. Please call these Assembly Health Committee members and tell them to VOTE NO on SB 623! ◼ Click HERE for a list of Assembly Health Committee members.

Republican National Convention

Attention all RNC delegates and alternate delegates! If you are a Republican Woman and also a delegate or alternate delegate to the RNC convention, we want to know! Please email your name and phone number to advocate@cfrw.org. Also if you are attending and need to connect with another Republican Woman to share a room with, we can help! We look forward to seeing all of our California Republican Women in Tampa!

Calling All Republican Women Candidates!

If you are a Republican Woman running for office in California or know of a local Republican Woman candidate, please let us know! We are compiling a list of Republican Women candidates for our website so that we can help our fellow Republican Women! Please email advocate@cfrw.org the name of the candidate, the office they are running for, their local RWF club, and their campaign website if applicable. Women In Numbers!

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Disclaimer: The Capitol Update is an activity of the CFRW Advocate's Office. The update is for information only. CFRW official positions on legislation are stated immediately preceding the stated legislation or immediately following the stated legislation in this report.