no all-but-anointed candidate by the time of the California primary. Republicans would then be more likely to vote than Democrats.) The Democrats’ bill moved initiatives to the November general election only. This move left only two statewide propositions on the June 2012 primary ballot. There was a relaxation of term limits which passed. And there was a tobacco tax which – as will be discussed below – narrowly failed. One item that might have ended up on the June primary ballot was a “paycheck protection” initiative. Under paycheck protection, unions would be forbidden to use dues money for political purposes and corporations would be forbidden from making employee payroll deductions for political purposes. This seemingly-balanced formula in fact was aimed at unions since corporate political campaigns are not typically funded by payroll deduction. Basically, since union money goes mainly to Democrats, it would defund Democrats and initiatives favored by Democrats such as any tax initiative that might be part of the 2012-13 budget. The bill that was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor did not prevent paycheck protection from appearing eventually on the ballot; it did wind up on the November 2012 ballot but not in the June primary. Republicans filed a referendum to overturn the bill but never obtained the required signatures.35 By the fall of 2011, as noted earlier, only one city in California had declared formal bankruptcy, Vallejo, a Bay Area city with a population of about 116,000. That bankruptcy, filed in May 2008 before the full weight of the financial crisis was felt, was an early product of the housing bust.36 As it turned out, however, by summer of 2012, there were other municipal casualties that ended in bankruptcy proceedings: Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, and San Bernardino. The state’s tendency to pull local revenue up to Sacramento was in the background but, of course, each fallen city had its own special story.37 Since it was evident from the Vallejo example that other such bankruptcies might follow, the governor signed a bill that would set in motion an investigative process in some cases before bankruptcy could be declared. The bill was heavily favored by public-sector unions that feared their labor contracts might be abrogated by a bankruptcy judge. On the other hand, Governor Brown continued his pattern of sometimes giving something to organized labor and sometimes not. He vetoed a bill requiring local government to undertake economic impact studies when “big box” stores – read Wal-Mart – applied for building permits. Nonunion Wal-Mart has been 35
As noted earlier, another Republican-backed referendum for which signatures were obtained sought to undo the district lines drawn by a citizens’ tribunal for the state senate. This initiative eventually appeared on the November 2012 ballot but was abandoned by its backers. 36 On Vallejo, see Charles D. Sakai and Genevieve Ng, “We’re Bankrupt… Now What?,” CPER Journal, May 2010, pp. 5-12. Available at http://www.publiclawgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2010-05-WereBankrupt-Now-What.pdf. 37 The bankruptcy of Mammoth Lakes seemed linked to a dispute with a developer rather than deeper causes.
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