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Don't forget that today, November 8, is the Special Election. All the seemingly endless hoopla and commercials do, in fact, have a defined ending point.
The Easy Voter guide and the Smart Voter guide offer nonpartisan summaries of the propositions that are a little shorter and easier to read than the ones on the official voters' guide. If you don't know where your polling place is, you can also look that up on the Smart Voter guide.
As the commercials and analyses pro and con each initiative have aired ad nauseum on television, radio, and internet, we'll limit ourselves to a few brief summaries and one rant:
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Prop 75: Public Employee Union Dues. Remember this one is intended to decrease the political power of unions.
Prop 76: State Spending and School Funding Limits: Why do we need all these initiatives legislating tighter spending in the future? The problem with school funding is the original proposition that froze spending at current (at the time) levels - Prop. 13. Speaking of education and funding, can we learn a lesson about how not to legislate?
Prop 80. The endorsements make this confusing, but this is the de-deregulating of electric services providers in California. Deregulation, you may remember, led to rolling blackouts. The LA DWP never deregulated, so voters in its service area will be affecting lives of others more than their own.
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Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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