PROPOSITION 20 Removes elected representatives from establishment of congressional districts and gives that authority to a bipartisan 14-member redistricting commission.
PROPOSITION 27 Eliminates 14-member state redistricting commission and returns redistricting authority to elected representatives. Propositions 20 and 27 are about how state Legislature and U.S. House of Representative voter districts in California should be drawn up—by a bipartisan independent panel, or by the incumbent politicians running for reelection. Voting districts are redrawn after every 10-year census and, as everyone who was enumerated this year knows, the lines on the district map are due for another re-jiggering. Up until now, California’s lines have been drawn, in a word, “imaginatively,â€? as district maps have been sliced in all sorts of cookie-cutter ways—via bills passed by the state Legislature—to create Democrat and Republican strongholds throughout the state—strongholds that make it pretty tough for opposing party members to unseat incumbents, no matter how lousy they’ve served their district. In 2008, California voters passed Prop. 11, which took the redistricting of the state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization out of the hands of the Legislature and gave the authority to a 14member Citizens Redistricting Commission to be established once every 10 years with ďŹ ve Democrats, ďŹ ve Republicans and four others to redraw the districts based on the latest census while keeping the integrity of geographic boundaries not to mention city, county and neighborhood limits. Prop. 11, though, didn’t affect the lines of the congressional representatives’ districts— and Prop. 20 seeks to bring those under the purview of the Citizens Redistricting Commission, as well. Prop. 27, meanwhile, is a proposal to throw out the Citizens Redistricting Commission altogether and stick with the old ways for both the state Legislature and U.S. Congressional districting. It’s no act of brilliant political philosophy to suggest that it’s probably not the best idea to have the Legislature inuencing its own district boundaries—or those of fellow party members. It’d be like having an owner of a Major League Baseball franchise acting as commissioner over the other owners— and we all know how that’s worked out. To further the analogy, think of the current voter boundaries as districts on steroids— they’re unnatural, they’re tough to beat and they create a very unfair advantage for those already on the team. The No on 20 (which is also the Yes on 27) campaign’s most frequently heard argument is that the Citizens Redistricting Commission will cost the state millions of dollars we can’t afford. The nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst, however, says Prop. 20 “will result in no signiďŹ cant change in redistricting costs.â€?
It’s a slam-dunk: YES on Proposition 20; NO on Proposition 27.
PROPOSITION 21 Establishes $18 annual vehicle license fee to help fund state parks and wildlife programs. California’s state parks are the frequent target of funding cuts—and last year parkgoers felt it in a big way, as 150 of our 246 state-operated parks suffered deep reductions in services and hours of operation. This $18 a pop vehicle registration “surcharge� would create about $500 million in revenue for the parks—85 percent of that going to park operations and most of the rest toward wildlife protection programs. In return for drivers’ cold, hard cash, registered vehicles would receive free daytime parking at all state parks—meaning a visit to Olompali, Mt. Tamalpais and Samuel P. Taylor parks once each year and you’d be six bucks ahead. The opposition is calling it a “cynical ploy to bring back the Car Tax.� Well, it is a car tax. But it’s more like a reasonable plan to lower drivers’ carbon footprints by getting all us leadfoots to keep Angel Island, Olompali, China Camp, Mt. Tam and the fantastic Tomales Bay beaches up and running. We recommend YES on Proposition 21.
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PROPOSITION 22 Prohibits the state from diverting funds intended for transportation, redevelopment or local government projects. In its farcical triage of annual budgetbalancing decisions, the state often shifts funds away from their intended local targets to help pay for things the state deems more pressing. For instance, cities’ transportation and redevelopment-project war chests are sometimes raided during ďŹ scal crises to help pay for schools or emergency services. Prop. 22, among other things, would eliminate the state’s ability to use fuel-tax revenue for non-transportation purposes, and prohibit the state from borrowing local property tax funds to pay for schools. In a more perfect world—or perhaps more perfect system of California state government—such restrictions sound disciplined and logical. But in the Golden State these types of restrictions are part of the problem. Budget guarantees—initiated with 1988’s Prop. 98, which required 40 percent of the state budget go toward education—merely force the looting elsewhere, which, in turn, results in more propositions from other groups calling for guarantees in their arenas. (A worst-case scenario could one day ďŹ nd a few unlucky services bleeding all their funds to the state coffers simply because they haven’t passed a proposition to protect it.) As frustrating as it is for cities to have Sacramento redirect their funds, it’s an option we don’t want to take out of the hands of the state Legislature. We recommend a NO vote 27 > on Proposition 22.
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