Prop. 73: Waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor's pregnancy.
Prop. 74: Public school teachers; waiting period for permanent status.
Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.Well, this proposition won't do it. All of its provisions are about getting rid of teachers. Did I somehow miss noticing that our schools are suffering from a massive surplus of teachers, so that we need a new state law to get rid of them? I don't think so. The only one suffering from a surplus of teachers is Governor Arnold, who has repeatedly butted heads with the teachers' union. I think perhaps there are simpler ways to solve the Governor's head-butting problems.
Prop. 75: Public employee union dues; restrictions on political contributions; employee consent requirement.
Prop. 76: State spending and school funding limits.
76 also specifically targets education funding for reduction; see above quote about education being the silver bullet.
Actually, the real fix for California's budgetting process is quite simple. Currently the budget must pass both houses by a 2/3rds majority. Change it to a simple majority. Bada-bing, bada-boom, end of problem. Of course we already tried making this change last March as Prop. 56, and it failed 34%-66%. Maybe people like the deadlocks.
Schwarzenegger is in favor of this one. I think it might have been the original cause of the Special Election.
Prop. 77: Redistricting.
There's a realpolitik argument to be made for rejecting this. The fact is, the current redistricting setup favors the status quo. In California at the moment that gives the Democrats an advantage in Congress. If you are a Democrat then perhaps it would be foolish to throw away this advantage in the name of fairness. Can you imagine the current crop of Republicans doing the same thing in, say, Texas? That would never happen. However, California hasn't always been a Democratic stronghold, and it may not be one forever. Making the redistricting system fairer now might prevent the Republicans from getting a permanent lock on the state in the future.
Prop. 78: Discounts on prescription drugs.
Both 78 and 79 will provide discounts on prescription drugs. 78 is backed by the pharmaceutical industry, and they are spending over $80 million to pass 78 and defeat 79. I don't think they actually want 78 to pass; they'd rather see both of them defeated. But I'm sure they realize that people very much want action on health care costs and one or both of these measures will pass. The $80 million is to try to limit the damage.
Prop. 79: Prescription drug discounts.
Both 78 and 79 will provide discounts on prescription drugs. This is the real one; the other one is backed by the pharmaceutical companies to cause confusion and limit the damage. Don't fall for their tricks! Vote NO on 78 and YES on 79.
Prop. 80: Electric service providers; regulation.
I do know that if it passes, then the utilities will say it's the reason they're not building any more generators in California. If it doesn't pass, they'll have some other excuse. Either way we're fuxx0red.
I will probably vote NO just on the basis of this being too complicated for a ballot issue. "Pete Rates The Propositions" has a very long analysis and dis-recommends it,
