PG&E propaganda

[melchar]

There are ads hitting the radio about prop 16 that are just amazing propaganda! Prop 16 has almost solely been funded by PG&E - spending about 30 million -so far- - in order to put create a law to limit competition in the field of energy creation/sale.

The PG&E ads are all nonsense about 'evil people are trying to take away your right to vote'. They want to add language to the state constitution to require a 2/3 vote of citizens to allow any city to install new forms of energy creation [like -solar- panels!], or allow them to invest in or sett rates for green energy.

These sleaze ads are ALL designed to kill competition, and I've heard 4 -different- spin ads from PG&E since noon so far today ... each repeated WAY too many times.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

California, IMO, is actually suffering from a democracy surplus. We, the people, insist on making decisions without doing a whole lot to study the issues, and we deliberately tie the hands of the people whose job it is -- we hire them -- to manage affairs for us. You simply can't run California like a New England Town Meeting.

Populist reforms of the early 20th century sound good, and I'm ashamed to admit that I voted for term limits, but things are going crazy. IMO we need to :

1. Repeal term limits.
2. Change the budget/appropriation requirement to a majority (not 2/3).
3. Raise the bar on the initiative/referendum process.
4. Clean out the State Constitution (includes all of the above), which is a mess.
5. Make it more difficult to amend the Constitution -- possibly by requiring passage in two separate elections a couple of years apart or something like that. Constitutions are simply not supposed to be that easy to change.
6. Probably loosen up the Prop 13 restrictions on property values. I know that's going to sound like I'm wanting to tax people out of their homes, but things are getting unsustainable right now.

If we don't do some of these reforms, the default -- what's happening now -- will continue: The infrastructure will continue to crumble and the state will become less livable, which will make people move away, thus reducing the demand on services.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

[smiles] Not that surprising, but I agree with every one of your points. On point 6, I would modify it to only apply to original residents of personally-owned property.

Never has a state been so ill-managed ... and proud of its ability to pass laws by popular acclaim. That this vote is frequently bought is just embarrassing.