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March 3, 2020 Primary Election. IMPACT Ballot recommendation, Proposition 13

1/24/2020

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Dear Friends:

Our IMPACT Board has made the recommendation for the upcoming March 3, 2020 single ballot proposal, Proposition 13:

 
Proposition 13.  Recommendation:  SUPPORT
 
Prop. 13 is a legislatively-originated bond measure of $15 billion to cover upgrades, new construction, and other capital improvements to our K-12, community college, and university buildings.  Much is for ongoing retrofit to improve earthquake safety and upgraded plumbing to eradicate lead in the drinking water, to deal with overcrowding, and continue the focus on financially stressed areas with low performing schools via determinations already established by law. 
 
The most recent previous bond measure, Prop. 55, passed in 2016. It raised $7 Billion of which $3 billion remains unused. It was heavily weighted to K-12.  The General Services Administration notes a significant amount spent on retrofit and some on construction. Most went to relieve overcrowding (none of those allocations remains unspent) while unspent funds were for general remediation and new construction.  
 
What is particularly gratifying about Prop. 13 is the requirement that universities' trustees must create a five-year plan to provide affordable student housing for their campus populations. In light of the horror stories we've read about students living in their cars or worse, this is a major milestone.  
 
The competition for grants from Prop. 13 will be based on matching funds. Modernization and safety upgrades will be funded at 60-65%; new construction will be 50-55%  Revenue allocations to community colleges will be tied to their budgets. This may do a disservice, however, to underfunded campuses such as Los Angeles Southwest Community College that has always been shortchanged. Its student population, nearly 90% Black, never was a priority.  Tying the bond money to already low revenue rather than material needs is at odds with the K-12 formulae that emphasize spending in neglected areas. Nevertheless, money will still be forthcoming for necessary expansion and improvements and is important for those reasons.
 
As with all CA revenue bonds for capital upgrades, this bond language contains a project labor agreement guaranteeing good wages to those performing the construction and has an administrative cap of 5%.
 
ANALYSIS
 
We were a bit discomfited by the high percent of funds left unspent from Prop. 55. It's almost half.  However, that in part stems from the Treasurer's fiscally responsible decision to place bonds in the market in reasonably conservative bundles to get low interest and ease the payback demands from the annual General Fund.  It's been less than 4 years since Prop. 55 was passed, so the careful expenditures are not out of line with that responsible fiscal distribution.
 
That said, this bond serves a broader audience, continues work that was too long delayed during our economic lag from 2001 until quite recently, and does address communities in need as high priorities through most of the spending formulae.  It is a good time at this moment of extremely low interest rates for us to engage in work long delayed.  We have children still going to schools in buildings that were in abominable condition back in the 1970s and that remain so today. Those schools are largely in communities of color, and the 40 year lag in upgrade is unconscionable.  We need to improve the physical resources of all our schools so we bring educational levels to greater equity for all.  Part of that work started with Prop. 51. It needs to continue.  We also need to address the expansion of Career Ed facilities at our community colleges and the appalling lack of student housing at our most prestigious universities. All of these things will be assisted by Prop. 13.  

We therefore support this important step, long overdue, for improving the environments in which our children are educated.  

For voter information on registration and other data, please go here .  Voter information is on the main page.

Thank you.  See you at the polls March 3!

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FAITHFUL FIVE MINUTES - OUR NEW ADVOCACY FOR DEMOCRACY

1/5/2017

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Dear Friends:

California Church IMPACT has tried to build on the outstanding and inspiring work of Rev. William Barber in North Carolina who created “Moral Mondays” as a means of bringing faith and justice voices to that state Capitol.

We have encouraged you to work locally, to meet and lobby your state Legislators in your own districts.  We have encouraged you to do that as “Faithful Fridays”, the day Legislators are most likely to be present where you live.

With respect to how we advocate in Washington, DC, we are taking a very different path.

Two days ago citizens were successful in stopping the House of Representatives from obliterating the office that oversees ethical issues.  Calls flooded the House from every corner of America, and the vote of the full house never came to the floor.

We know that emails to Congress are not effective. Calls, however, are. Your voices matter – and we’ve just seen that in action.

We are facing challenges to every single thing most of us hold dear – abolition of health care, massive cuts to the social safety net, wrenching dislocation of Social Security and Medicare – things that will impact both the very poor and then all of us.

We are now encouraging each of you to participate in “Faithful Five Minutes”.

Calls do not have to be long or detailed.  Calling Congress involves about five minutes – the time it takes to brush and floss your teeth. 

Democracy requires more of us than just incidental engagement. It is not a spectator sport no matter how often we yell at the television. It’s upon us as citizens and advocates for justice to do more.

Please make Faithful Five Minutes a daily habit. Spread the word to your friends, family, congregation, and especially youth groups.  One call, once a day on a topic of concern. You can change the world.

Are you worried you will be considered a crank? Well, that’s fine. So be it. Some years ago one woman contacted a California state senator almost daily over her insistence that he take up animal welfare as an issue. He brushed her off since that was not a concern upon which he focused. However, she called regularly, day after day, until finally – he did it!  Her persistence paid off royally.  He took up the issue partly to get her to stop calling but also because she taught him something about it. If that’s being a crank, all to the good!

With huge money in politics these days,  the one things that overwhelms money is votes. If voters – citizens – speak up constantly the very force of their presence is more powerful than all the campaign donations in the world. Make clear what you believe and how that translates into support for your elected officials.  It’s powerful.

Keep on with Faithful Fridays for California legislation.

Include a new daily habit with Faithful Five Minutes: eat your breakfast, take your vitamins, brush your teeth,  CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE.

Nothing could be easier.

“My name is______ I live at _________ I am part of the ____________ (church, denomination, organization).  I want you to vote  FOR/AGAINST________________. Thank you.”

We will send information on issues as they arise. For now, the issue at most risk is the Affordable Care Act. We sent information about it, but the message to your Representative simply is "I want you to preserve ACA and improve it. Do not change, or dismantle, or defund it."

To obtain your Representative's number, please go to: http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html
Be sure your address and/or ZIP are entered, and that will take you to your elected officials' home page.

To call the US Capitol and be connected to your Representative, call (202) 224-3121.

Simple, clear, your own voice raised for justice.

Faithful Five Minutes.  It’s the new routine for a robust democracy.

Thank you!

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PROPOSITION 56   Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare, Tobacco Use Prevention, Research, and Law Enforcement, Initiative and Constitutional Amendment and Statute.  YES

9/15/2016

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If passed this proposition will raise the excise tax – the tax levied on wholesalers – by $2.00 for tobacco products in addition to existing excise taxes, and will inaugurate similar excise taxes for e-cigarettes.  On all three categories the final excise tax will be $3.37 per item.  Because of the price increase of the retail item, it will also raise sales taxes based on higher cost.  Increased revenue will provide $1-$1.4 billion but potentially less over time with a reduction in tobacco and possibly e-cigarette use.
 
The distribution of funds will be in part to replace funds lost by smoking and nicotine product reduction such as First Five childhood programs, then to state and local health programs including Medi-Cal, Public Health, etc. with other revenues to physician training to increase the numbers of primary care and emergency room physicians. Some revenue will go to the state Tobacco Control program to reduce smoking and also to school programs also designed to end use of tobacco by young people. Some funds (5% after revenue replacement is distributed) will be directed to administration of the tax and $48 million to agencies enforcing tobacco-related laws.
 
This excise tax places some of the costs of care on those who use tobacco and other products to offset the costs of tobacco-related diseases and impacts of users. Higher “sin taxes’ have always been a useful strategy for reducing addictive practices but do have the consequence of also limiting long-term income to the state and agencies supported by the revenues.  However, the benefits in overall improved health offset the inherent flaw of income reduction in both diminished health costs and improvement in human well being.

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PROPOSITION 65.  Carry-out Bags. Charges. Initiative Statute.                             NO

9/14/2016

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This proposition is a cynical ploy to offset Proposition 67.  The ban on plastic bags may or may not be overturned, but the sponsors of Proposition 65, all out-of-state manufacturers of plastic bags, wish to look concerned for the impact of their products. By directing the small charge of 10 cents for carry-out bags to a new Wildlife Conservation Board, they want to appear environmentally conscious.  In fact Proposition 65 is an effort to turn grocers against the bag ban and environmentalists by taking the income from sales of paper bags and diverting it to a non-existent programs.  It has, in fact, turned many of us against the sponsors for a sneaky theatrical trick.
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PROPOSITION 67.  Plastic bag ban                                                            YES

9/14/2016

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This, as with Proposition 65, violates our commitments to environmental good.          Vote YES to keep the ban
This is a referendum on an existing law so that to keep the law banning non-reusable plastic bags we vote YES. To overturn the ban and permit plastic bags in stores again, we vote NO. The plastic bag ban is an inconvenience and can be a hardship for poorer people who need to find alternative carriers that cost money. But the overall contribution of this ban to the improvement of our communities, our environment, to  the well being of our wildlife definitely offset the initial inconvenience.  We think this is a critical moment to change our throw away society into one that cares for creation even through this simple step.

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    Author

    The Rev Dr Rick Schlosser

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