Voters set to reject special election propositions
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
May 15, 2009
If you thought California was in for a bumpy budget ride before, just wait until Tuesday. It appears almost certain that voters are going to take out their anger toward the governor and the Legislature by rejecting a host of propositions designed to prop up the state’s sagging fiscal health.
Polls show voters are furious with lawmakers for not dealing adequately with the budget mess. But if you think it’s bad now, just wait till the hysteria sets in if the state must cope with closing a $20 billion shortfall — which, in case you haven’t done the math, is going to be chiseled out in large chunks from the cities and counties already doing their own dialing for dollars.
The prognosis is so grim that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released the state budget estimates a few weeks earlier than expected — better to give voters a preview of what the big picture is before the special election. Then, he announced he would consider selling state property like San Quentin State Prison, the Cow Palace and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Remember how the popular governor remade himself (actors are good at that) and then coasted to a second term? The Public Policy Institute of California recently measured Schwarzenegger’s approval rating at 34 percent. Members of both parties give him a thumbs down for his handling of the state’s affairs. His only upside is that he’s not in the state Legislature, which has an approval rating of 20 percent. That figure is so low our elected officials in Sacramento could play handball with the sidewalk.
Against this backdrop comes the latest budget news, which has officials statewide trying to figure out what a full-scale election failure Tuesday could mean. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this week urged the City Council to declare a fiscal emergency, adding that in addition to his city’s $500 million-plus deficit is another $76 million Sacramento may withhold in sales-tax revenue.
The financial picture here is even worse. As both a city and a county, San Francisco stands to be raided twice by Sacramento to help cover its expanding budget hole. Mayor Gavin Newsom told me this week that the figure will be far more than $100 million, which should be more than enough warning for our exceedingly tax-weary citizens to hold on to their wallets.
Let’s move on from JROTC and focus on the three R’s
Something tells me that the three-year fight about JROTC is not finished, despite the Board of Education’s narrow decision to reinstate it, for the simple reason that in San Francisco political battles do not die, they just go into varying degrees of hibernation.
Just because the voters showed strong support for the long-respected leadership program means little to the groups opposing it based on their anti-military ideology. Losing at the ballot box more than once hardly halted activists from pursuing road closures in the east end of Golden Gate Park for more than six years.
And the fight to tear down the Central Freeway lasted in many forms for more than a decade, a battle that had more starts and stops than the Bay Bridge approach on Memorial Day.
About the only thing preventing the JROTC issue from being raised again immediately is that the main proponents of knee-jerk politics in San Francisco are pushing so many losing ideas these days because of the budget that it barely rates as an editorial.
It is worth noting, however, that by voting to reinstate it, the school board might actually have time to address such pressing needs as layoffs and program cuts, now that it appears every city department’s budget will be shrinking.
We can only hope that the JROTC issue will go the way of the scuffles regarding irradiated meat and on-campus police in schools, so that trustees can concentrate on little things like test scores and graduation rates.
S.I. tells us something we already knew
We hate to beat a dead franchise, but our mantra about the team owner being the most important position in any professional sports organization was echoed by none other than Sports Illustrated this week. Its Web site listed the heads of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders as among the five worst owners in the NFL.
Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan also earned a nod as the man behind one of most questionable decisions in sports for bringing back coach Don Nelson, who openly admits the NBA game has passed him by.
The Giants and A’s were spared only because baseball was not included in the top-five best/worst list.
SI.com reported that since Denise DeBartolo York handed the reins of the 49ers to husband John, the once-heralded team has become one of the “biggest train wrecks in the NFL.”
How’s that for a preseason opener?
Smut sellers lose haven with Craigslist move
In the latest sign of the coming apocalypse, San Francisco-based Craigslist announced it will close its erotic services category, which is among the pistons that drives the Web. The company will replace it with a paid adult services area that is reviewed by employees to look for signs of illegal activity, like all those sex-for-sale ads it has been accused of ignoring.
And just in case you were wondering, company officials say the move was not made under any legal pressure and has nothing to do with several states threatening to take action against the Web site for violent crimes involving people who made contact with each other through Craigslist.
Right.
Surveillance and enforcement hasn’t been a trademark of Craigslist, which has been hyperactive in responding to the requests from several states since a 23-year-old medical student in Boston was accused of killing a woman who offered masseuse services on the site. As many as 40 state attorneys general have been, shall we say, encouraging Craigslist to be more vigilant about its classified ads. California Attorney General Jerry Brown likened it to a “cyber hub for teenage prostitution.”
The underlying message: Let’s be careful out there.
Follow The Examiner
