Allison Olson, CFRW Advocate
Capitol Update
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
California Federation of Republican Women
Sue Blair, President
No on March Prop 13!
Voting has begun for the March Primary Election in California. There is one proposition on the ballot- Prop 13. No, not THAT Prop 13. This Prop 13 is a $15 billion school facilities bond, but if passed it could raise your property taxes. The CFRW OPPOSES Prop 13 on the March Primary Ballot. CLICK HERE to read our rationale in our last Capitol Update or CLICK HERE for a PDF print out. Here are some Talking Points to educate voters and to encourage them to VOTE NO on Prop 13!
No on Prop 13 Talking Points
- This is not the same Prop 13 that protects our property taxes, but this Prop 13 could RAISE your property taxes if passed. This $15 billion school facilities bond has language buried deep within the measure that allows school districts to borrow more money from the state- almost double what they can borrow currently by law. This debt increase will raise YOUR property taxes, because these types of local school bonds must be paid back by local property taxes. It shows up on your property tax bill as “Voted Indebtedness”.
- This is a general obligation bond. That means that California taxpayers pay it back over 30 years. With the $27 billion in interest this bond will generate, Prop 13 will cost the taxpayers $740 million a year from the General Fund. Bond debt must be paid back before other General Fund programs get funded, meaning there is less money for law enforcement, social services, and other government funded programs.
- If passed, Prop 13 gives funding priority to school districts who use Project Labor Agreements, or PLAs. Union construction bids are often, if not always, higher and more costly than non-union bids. Yet Prop 13 would give them an edge up, which is an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.
- The state already has $7.8 billion in unsold, unused school facilities bond monies, already allocated for the construction, upgrades, and retrofitting of California schools. Shouldn’t we use that bond money first?
- California has $90 billion in bond debt. We pay back $6 billion a year to settle our debt from our General Fund. Do we really need to add to that? Have all other options or solutions been exhausted? We think not.
CLICK HERE for a PDF print out of our Official CFRW talking points.
Halt AB 5!
We have been alerted that on February 27th, Assemblyman Kiley (R, 6) will initiate a floor vote to suspend the implementation of terrible AB 5 (Gonzalez, D) while legislation to repair its disastrous effects are underway. The floor vote will be on AB 1928 (Kiley, R), which Assemblyman Kiley introduced to suspend AB 5 enforcement and restore the prior legal standard while changes to the law are being constructed. As you will recall, AB 5 was shoved through last legislative session, stifling our state’s gig economy by requiring that independent contractors be employees by the companies that hired them. This law has wreaked havoc on approximately 1 million Californians, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). Read more about that HERE.
Even the author of AB 5, Assemblywoman Gonzalez, has admitted critical errors in the original law, and has introduced her own legislation to fix it. But she isn’t the only one. Currently there are approximately 30 bills in the legislature addressing concerns to fix AB 5.
Assemblyman Kiley’s bill to halt AB 5, AB 1928 (Kiley, R), will be considered an urgency measure and take effect immediately if passed by the legislature. Call YOUR Assembly member NOW and ask them to VOTE YES on AB 1928! Find your Assembly member HERE.
Ask your Assembly member to vote YES on AB 1928 as an urgency measure to take immediate effect for these reasons:
- The bill simply restores the law from a change less than two years ago
- The issues of AB 5 have been documented extensively by both the Assembly, the Senate, and the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office
- AB 1928 would just be a stopgap while legislators work together a more workable law
- Assemblyman Kiley made a promise to work with legislators to bring forward bipartisan legislation addressing genuine cases of work misclassification
Call your Assembly member NOW and ask them to VOTE YES on AB 1928 and protect ALL gig-workers in California!
State of the State
Tomorrow Governor Newsom will deliver his State of the State address. Expect more of the same, throwing money at problems as a solution and then seeing no results. When Governor Newsom was Mayor of San Francisco his “solution” to the homelessness crisis there was to spend $1 billion dollars, and we all know how well it turned out. California is number one in the country in all the categories that matter- highest gas taxes, highest housing costs, highest income taxes. And as a state we are consistently falling behind in education, employment, and public safety. But don’t expect Governor Newsom to address any of this. Instead we expect him to talk about homelessness (where he has no authority on the matter. Read an interesting SF Chronicle on that HERE), state-run prescription drugs, and physical education tests in schools. The CA GOP will distribute talking points after Governor Newsom’s State of the State speech tomorrow. Follow along on Facebook at @CARepublicanParty or Twitter at @CAGOP.
