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Money for repeal of Maximum Family Grant is in the budget - urge Governor Brown to keep it!

5/31/2016

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Dear Friends:
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Thanks to your urging, Senator Kevin de Leon, our President pro tem of the Senate, has put funding to uphold the repeal of the Maximum Family Grant limits on family income for childen born to families on CalWORKs.

CalWORKs as with most state versions of Temporary Aid to Needy Families, gives no additional funding for any children born to a family while they receive federal and state support.  CalWORKs barely supports families as it is; an additional child therefore is a huge financial burden.  We have been fighting since 2008 to obtain this policy repeal and get funding into the budget.  Every year we either lose the bill or the funding.

Finally, this year, we have a chance to do the right thing for this state's children.  We have been working with Senator Holly Mitchell to end the Maximum Family Grant limits via SB 23. But the real chance for success came with budget inclusion spearheaded by Senator de Leon. 

Opposition is couched in unacceptable Victorian values. Somehow having children is a blessing for the well-off but evidence of a moral failure in the poor.   However, our state's willful decision to create a permanent hardship with all of its inhumane outcomes is the real social evil.  It is in our power now to do the right thing, to assure that further harm does not land on the tinyest of our citizens, that they get a better chance to have good futures, no matter how and where those lives began.  We can do better for an additional $133 per month - not enough but a help - to make sure they get more of what they need to thrive.

Our budget will be finished and voted upon by June 15, then sent to the Governor for his signature by June 30.  We don't have a moment to waste.

First, please thank Senator Mitchell for her advocacy on repealing the MFG.  You may write to her via her staff: Elise.Gyore@sen.ca.gov

Then please thank President pro Tem de Leon for placing this money into the upcoming budget.  You may write him via his staff:  lisa.chin@sen.ca.gov

Then please write your own Senator and Assembly Member urging them to keep the funds for covering children born to families on CalWORKs within the proposed budget.  You may reach your legislators here.

Finally, please begin advocating for keeping budget funding for chidren on CalWORKs with our Governor, Jerry Brown.  California has "line item veto" so he has the option - and has done it before - to remove any specific item he desires.  We have to advocate for retaining these funds.  Children's lives are at stake.  Stress that children brought up in poverty tend to endure in poverty, and failure to improve their lives assures the Governor will be contributing to the creation of a permanent underclass. That is totally immoral and unacceptable.

To email the Governor, you may go to his contact page here 

Enter your name, address and other information, and in the "Subject" dropdown, click on "Budget".

If you prefer to FAX a letter from yourself, your congregation, or you social justice group, you may do so at the following FAX numbers:

Capitol office: 916-558-3160.  Los Angeles:  213-897-0319   San Francisco: 415-703-2803.

From now through the end of June, please let your voices be heard.  The only way to break cycles of enduring poverty is by supporting children and helping them to better lives. This is a key first step.  Please take it with us.

Thank you!

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Fight back against money in politics - support SB 1107 today!

5/25/2016

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Dear Friends:

You may remember we helped take action against the corruption of money in politics with Proposition 15 on the ballot in 2010.

Unfortunately, it did not pass.  Money remains a problem for candidates and propositions thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates in the Citizens United decision.

However, we have another chance to act.  SB 1007 (Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica) would provide local governments with a chance to use public funding.

The Citizens United decision threw our democracy completely out of balance. It tipped the scales wildly in favor of wealthy special interests – but the people are fighting back.  

In 2015, from Seattle to Illinois to Maine, voters came together and won major victories. Americans are saying they've had enough of big money and are standing up to fight -- and WIN.  

California, we’re next. Tell your state senator we need a democracy of, by, and for the people. We need to pass SB 1107!

Incredibly, in California, voters are prohibited from passing laws that restore balance to the system through citizen-funded elections. Why? Because political insiders rigged the system almost 30 years ago.

But we can work together to fix it. Senate Bill 1107 would remove the 28-year-old ban on public financing, allowing our state and local governments to amplify the voices of all Californians, not just the super-rich.

If we want things to change in California, we're going to have to work together make it happen. Tell the Legislature to restore balance to our democracy – pass SB 1107!‎

Clean elections work – we’ve seen it. New York City's small donor matching funds system revolutionized political giving for municipal races, engaging voters in every part of the city, not just the richest precincts.  In Connecticut, 74 percent of all elected officials participate in that state’s Citizen Election Program – Republicans and Democrats alike – with wide acknowledgment that it has shifted the balance of power away from lobbyists and back to the people.

It's time for California to cut our politicians' dependence on special interest money. Tell the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 1107.

Click here for the link to your State Senator. http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html

Let your Senator know that it is past time we took the power of money out of our elections.  We can do this and do it this year if we pass SB 1107!

‎Thanks for all you do for democracy!

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Dangerous Threat to Free Speech and Successful Strategies - Stop AB 2844 NOW!

5/19/2016

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Dear Friends-

Many of us remember the power that lay behind our use of boycotts to end apartheid in South Africa. Across the nation we saw many companies and institutions agree to stop doing business with that country until they ended that abominable act of racial segregation.  We got General Motors to take up the Sullivan Principles, named for Rev. Leon Sullivan who wrote them, in its refusal to do business there unless key conditions of equality were met.

Now we are contemplating similar strategies against manifest injustice and violations of human rights. Some want to do the same in Uganda and other nations with horrific "death to gays" laws. Still others are taking up boycott requests against Israel for its actions with respect to Palestinians.  
And it is here, the boycott actions contemplated against Israel, that some California legislators believe are totally unacceptable.  AB 2844 authored by Assembly Member Richard Bloom, began by denying California state contracts to any company engaging in a boycott of Israel.

That did not sit well with human rights activists that included a number of peace groups working on Israel-Palestine issues. From the Methodists, Presbyterians, and UCC, along with ACLU and human rights groups, this bill suddenly became a threat to OUR free speech and work to get companies to refuse to work in Israel and to stand for peace and reconciliation between these two long-time adversaries. 

But the bill just got worse. To avoid the apparent one-sided nature of this dispute, the singling out of protection for Israel, AB 2844 expanded to refuse contracts to any company engaging in a boycott with any nation duly recognized by the federal government. In one amendment, AB 2844 eliminated all capacity for the types of actions that accomplished so much in South Africa and barred the way against future work anywhere for any reason.

AB 2844 is in Assembly Appropriations and is on 'suspense'. Often this is the burial ground for even excellent bills.  AB 2844, however, has the support of some powerful friends. With enough persuasion, it might be pulled from suspense May 27th.  We would like to have it fail.

This is not just about the impossibly hard issues of Mid-East peace any longer. It's about stripping both companies and us of our right to advocate for a method of persuasion that has been very successful in bringing parties to peace talks and, we hope, reconciliation.  We cannot be deprived of our right to speak, to advocate, to persuade nor can companies - think General Motors - be threatened with grave economic hardship for standing with us in our quest. 

Please ask Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzales and the members of the Appropriations Committee to stand for our First Amendment rights in killing this bill.  Please send emails opposing AB 2844 including your organizational support, your address and phone to the Chief Appropriations Consultant: Pedro.Reyes@asm.ca.gov. 

If you want to FAX a letter, the number is 916-319-2181. You may address the FAX letter to Lorena Gonzales, Chair, Assembly Appropriations.  To call her, the direct Capitol number is 916-319-2080, and her district office in San Diego is 619-338-8090.

This has consequences for all of us using economic leverage to bring nations and their people into new or renewed discussion, replacing violence with peaceful interaction. We have seen it work. We know the power. It is important that an ill-considered bill NOT be allowed to remove that capacity from our efforts.

Thank you.

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Help the Victims of Human Trafficking - Raise your Voice for AB 1761!

5/18/2016

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Dear Friends:

We have only today to raise our voice for victims of human trafficking. 

AB 1761 offers the FACT of being trafficked as an affirmative defense against crimes into which the victims were coerced to commit by the people who enslaved them.

The bill goes to the floor of the Assembly tomorrow, and it's important that we advocate for this defense. Whether it is prostitution, drugs, theft, burglary - these people are acting not of their own free will but under massive duress. They are often young, fearful of lethal harm to themselves or their families, and they see no help from law enforcement. That is especially true for those who are also unwilling immigrants. The system tends to cite them no matter what the circumstances of their deeds. This perpetuates the power traffickers hold over these victims.

Please contact your Assembly member today to advocate for this affirmative defense.  Note that the Sheriffs, District Attorneys, and other law enforcement do not want this bill to pass.  It will make their lives more difficult since cut-and-dried charges and convictions will have to become more careful.

But isn't that the point of restorative justice? To make sure it is true justice and not just going through the motions? It's up to us to affirm that clearing cases when it involves people who are victims is not consistent with our values of justice and democracy. Your voice matters here - alone or with your organization.

To access your Assembly Member's contact information please go to: http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html

Those who are often victims of our judicial system's secondary re-victimization need you.  Please tell your Assembly Member that being trafficked is an affirmative reason to evaluate the actions of victims differently, to reduce (not eliminate) charges, and to work as much to protect the victim from further abuse, this time by us.  Support AB 1761 tomorrow, May 19.​

Thank you!

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Election June 7, 2016 - Proposition 50-SUPPORT

5/10/2016

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Proposition 50

Legislative Constitutional Amendment.  – Recommendation: SUPPORT

Proposition 50 is the only item on the primary election ballot.  It is a Constitutional Amendment that permits the Legislature to strengthen its ability to expel or suspend any member with a 2/3 vote.  The Proposition also strengthens the Political Reform Act of 1974 with respect to key issues affecting outside influence on legislators’ policies and votes.

Recently three members of the California State Senate found themselves facing criminal inquiry. The Senate had limited ability to suspend or expel them per the existing language in the California State Constitution.  Proposition 50 would permit the respective houses to suspend or expel members and also to stop their pay, forbid them from acting in their capacity as a legislator, and from using any of their governmental resources during a suspension as well as an expulsion. Should the member be found innocent of the charges, their respective house would also have the right to reinstate said legislator with a second 2/3 vote.

In addition Proposition 50 bars all honoraria, gifts of a nature that could be considered a conflict of interest, and other inducements that have long come under question as issues of undue influence. It also affirms more strongly the bar on former legislators and officials against lobbying for 12 months following their departure from their official position.  The nature of other issues, such as sponsored travel, etc. will be left up to the Legislature, but the Proposition directs them to set clear and unambiguous terms and conditions for such items.

California Church IMPACT has long supported strengthening the Political Reform Act to achieve these standards. While it still leaves some determinations to the legislators themselves, this is a solid step in the right direction toward removing undue influence from our deliberative body making our laws. 

You will still be able to send flowers to thank a legislator for good work, but large money interests would be limited to the same.  That’s progress.​

This measure has one opponent. It has thousands of supporters.  CCI recommends you vote YES on Proposition 50.

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    Author

    The Rev Dr Rick Schlosser

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