national attention when one city worker committed suicide by jumping off the roof of city hall. And much litigation over outsourcing and other issues, some still underway at this writing, followed. Although other cities were to follow a year later, the only California city in actual bankruptcy during the summer of 2011 was Vallejo. Vallejo emerged from bankruptcy with reduced pensions for new hires and higher pension contributions for incumbent workers. Pensions of retirees were not affected. Some other cities – indeed, the League of California Cities – had hoped for a test of the legal position that pensions already promised to current workers cannot be touched. However, Vallejo – in part because of pressure from CalPERS – the very large pension covering state employees (other than UC and certain other state groups) and many local jurisdictions – not to push in that direction. Republicans in the legislature had been able to keep the governor negotiating on the idea of a tax extension proposition until June when he gave up and the minority party essentially lost any voice in the enactment of the 2011-12 budget. But the GOP still had some potential future power due to the two thirds vote requirement for taxes and certain other legislative actions. The problem was that even that limited leverage could end given the new redistricted legislative boundaries drawn up by the citizen commission mentioned earlier that voters had set up. Although taking redistricting out of the hands of the Democratic legislature had long been a GOP goal, it appeared that even the new districts could conceivably give Democrats two-thirds control. Republicans filed an initiative in August 2011 that challenged the new districts that had been drawn up but just those districts for the state senate. They did not challenge assembly or congressional districts. Ultimately, they raised the funds needed to gather the needed signatures. Ironically, when the needed signatures had been gathered and the measure went on the ballot for November 2012, Republicans abandoned the campaign. It was too late to take the initiative off the ballot but the “pro” argument in the ballot pamphlet for what became Prop 40 told voters that the initiative was no longer needed.33 Even as the summer of 2011 was drawing to a close, Governor Brown appeared to be looking ahead to proposing a new budget for 2012-13. Given the lesson learned from the 201112 process – that there would be no Republican support for any tax measures – the governor knew that if he wanted new taxes, he would have to go the initiative route. The legislature, however, had passed a bill that would require paid signature gatherers to wear buttons indicating they were hired hands – a provision that would make signature gathering more difficult. Brown vetoed the bill. He also vetoed proposed changes in the trigger cuts contained in the 2011-12 33
The rationale given for this unusual ballot argument was that the state Supreme Court had allowed the 2012 election to go forward with the new districts in place. It was unclear why the issue was pursued as long as it was. Early polling suggested that voters were not keen on overturning a system they themselves had created.
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