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Hey, June Election, What's Up?
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
There's a lot of focus on the upcoming November election with the Governor's race, the possible vote on legalizing marijuana and other issues. But first we must make it through the June 8th primary election, which offers up five propositions. A few of them are going to be debated widely.
Prop 14 was voted to be put on the ballot by legislators last year approving the budget. They didn't want to, but that was the compromise with Schwarzenegger. If passed, it would create a single primary where everyone votes in primaries, regardless of party affiliation, beginning in 2012. The two candidates with the most votes go on to the run-off. In theory, you could be seeing a Republican against a Republican in some races instead of the traditional slate of one person from each party, including Greens, Independents, etc.
Prop 16, or the New Two-Thirds Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers Act, would create an additional step--a two-thirds approval during an election--to provide municipal electricity service to new customers. It would also force voting when a municipality wants to create a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program, which allows cities to become competitors to private utilities. Utility behemoth, PG&E in Northern California, is the main fiscal sponsor of this prop, promising to fund $25 million during the campaign. The supporting campaign committee is slyly called Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote.
Prop 17 will likely be the most talked about because it deals with car insurance. Basically, this Mercury Insurance sponsored initiative would allows insurance providers to jack up rates if you've ever had a gap in coverage.
Other props include Prop 13, which deals with property tax assessments in regards to seismically retrofit, and Prop 15, a pilot project to tax lobbyists to publicly fund campaigns for the Secretary of State.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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