Progressive Democrats of LA Recommends …

NO on Proposition 74: The Punish New Teachers Act. This measure would do nothing to improve public education or deal with the real problems facing our schools. It unfairly attempts to blame teachers for the problems in our public schools, ignoring the realities of underfunding, overcrowding, and the lack of materials and resources needed for effective teaching and learning.

NO on Proposition 75: Paycheck Deception Act. Requires public employee unions including teachers, firefighters and police officers, and all other public employee associations – to gather individual forms from every member annually in order to spend dues money for political purposes. Far from protecting their rights, the measure is designed to reduce their ability to inform us when politicians harm education, health care and public safety. It is an unnecessary and unfair measure, with a hidden agenda intended to weaken public employees, so corporations can have more control in state government. Meanwhile, Corporations already outspend unions in politics by a huge margin. Nonetheless, the measure does nothing to restrict corporations, which routinely use their shareholders? money for political contributions without their consent. In fact, Prop. 75 will make this imbalance even worse.

NO on Proposition 76: The Education and Health Services Cuts Act. When the Governor says this is Living Within our Means, what he really means is that this power grab gives him significant new powers, including the power to: 1) gut the Prop. 98 school funding guarantees that voters put in place over a decade ago; 2) cut any program by any amount once a fiscal emergency has been declared; 3) undo decisions made by voters, such as voter-approved health and early childhood programs funded by tobacco taxes; 4) unilaterally overturn contracts made with state workers and other workers paid with a portion of state money; and 5) override state laws that require spending, without voters? or legislature?s review or approval. The measure removes any incentive to reach a budget compromise on time, because the new powers take effect when a budget can?t be worked out within 45 days of the Governor?s self declared fiscal emergency. The measure would cut school funding by over $40 billion in ten years ($6,000 per student) and lead to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials.

NO on Proposition 77: Reapportionment. Amends process for redistricting California’s Senate, Assembly, Congressional and Board of Equalization districts, putting the process in the hands of a three-member panel of retired judges, selected by legislative leaders.

NO on Proposition 78: The Drug Companies Bad Prescription Initiative. The big drug companies are going to spend millions trying to fool voters and keep them from passing the real prescription drug relief contained in the Alliance-backed Prop. 79. This phony measure says only that drug companies can enter a ?voluntary? program to reduce prices, but why would they? They have no real incentive to lower the sky-high cost of prescription drugs. A ?No? vote on this measure is necessary to provide consumers with real relief from soaring drug prices, because whichever measure gets the highest number of votes becomes law.

Yes for Consumer Rights and Corporate Responsibility
YES on Proposition 79: The Cheaper Prescription Drugs for Californians Act. This measure creates a drug iscount program that requires participation by drug manufacturers, or companies will lose the right to sell drugs through the state?s Medi-Cal program. It will mean steep discounts for seniors, families, small businesses and the State. The initiative allows the State to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for millions of Californians. The state will save hundreds of millions of
dollars, and California consumers will get cheaper prescription drugs.

YES on Proposition 80: The Affordable Electricity and Preventing Blackouts Act. A common-sense consumer initiative that will help prevent energy blackouts and massive fraud by unregulated private energy producers like Enron. It will override the failed energy deregulation policies, put utilities back in the business of serving the public, and encourage development of more renewable energy sources. The ultimate result will be more affordable energy for ALL Californians.

Alliance for a Better California 1800 21st Street #100 ? Sacramento, California 95814 (916) 737-9325(916) 737-1809 ID# 1273998
Alliance for a Better California, educators, firefighters, school employees, health care givers and labor organizations. Major funding by CA Teachers Association Issues PAC and CA State Council of Service Employees Issues Committee.
LABOR DONATED COMPUTER GENERATED
Parental Notification Endangers Teen Safety. November 8th, vote NO on Proposition 73!

Signatures were filed with the state on April 13 to qualify a dangerous measure to be voted on in the next statewide election. Proposition 73 is a harmful and ill-conceived initiative that would amend the state constitution to require health care providers to notify the parents of young women under the age of 18 before providing abortion services. Once a parent has been notified, a mandatory waiting period of 48 hours is required before the doctor can provide an abortion. Only those teens faced with a medical emergency or those who obtain a “judicial bypass” are exempt from the parental notification requirement. This initiative would serve as a blatant intrusion by the government into private, personal family matters and would place vulnerable teens in jeopardy of severe health consequences.

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Alliance for a Better California Talking Points

Prop. 74 -“Punish New Teachers” Initiative Talking Points

Unnecessary:

This initiative is unnecessary. There is already a system in place to fire teachers who are not performing in the classroom. Existing law allows teachers to be fired for unsatisfactory performance, unprofessional conduct, criminal acts, dishonesty and conduct unfit for associating with children no matter how long they’ve been on the job.

No teacher has a guaranteed job. This initiative is misleading about how teachers’ jobs work. Right now, after two years, all teachers get is the right to a hearing before they are fired.

This initiative is poorly drafted and will actually make it more difficult to get rid of teachers who are not doing their job. What incentive will there be for administrators to know the strengths and weaknesses of their teachers if the administrators have five years instead of two to make decisions about keeping teachers on staff?

Ineffective:
This initiative does nothing to improve student learning or deal with the real problems facing our schools. It won’t reduce class sizes, buy up-to-date textbooks for students or provide quality teacher training.

Stanford University experts say there is no evidence to show that lengthening the probation period has any impact on teacher quality. Instead of punishing teachers, we should focus on proven reforms such as providing mentoring programs and quality training for new teachers.

Governor Schwarzenegger promised real reform, but instead he broke his promises by cutting billions in funding for our schools. This initiative does not address the real challenges facing our schools.

Unfair:
This initiative unfairly singles out teachers as the problem in our public schools, when many classrooms are badly underfunded and students are denied the basic resources they need to learn.

This initiative is unfair to teachers because it takes away their right to a hearing before they are fired. It doesn’t solve the problems facing our schools, but creates new ones by driving good teachers away.

This initiative extends a teacher’s probation period to five years, longer than all but one other state in the country, which will make it more difficult to recruit and retain high-quality teachers in California.

Prop. 75 – Paycheck Deception Act Talking Points

Far from protecting the rights of teachers, nurses, police and firefighters, Prop. 75 is designed to reduce their ability to inform us when politicians would do harm to education, health care and public safety.

Prop. 75 is unnecessary and unfair. Its hidden agenda is a one-sided attempt to weaken public employees so corporations can have more control in state government.

IT’S A POWER GRAB THAT UNFAIRLY TARGETS PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Corporations already outspend unions in politics by a huge margin. But Proposition 75 does not restrict corporations, which routinely use their shareholders’money for political contributions without their consent. In fact, Prop. 75 will make this imbalance even worse.

Why does Prop. 75 only restrict public employee unions? Recently, teachers have fought to restore the funding the state borrowed from our public schools, but failed to repay. Nurses have battled against reductions in hospital staffing. Police and firefighters have fought against elimination of survivor’s benefits for families of those who die in the line of service.

Now their opponents are trying to silence them by passing Prop. 75.

WHO IS BEHIND PROP 75?

Its lead sponsor is Lewis Uhler, a former John Birch Society official who has campaigned for Bush’s Social Security privatization plan.

It’s funded by the deceptively-named Small Business Committee of California, which is financed by large corporations including banks, developers and drug companies.

Backers of Prop. 75 say they want to protect workers rights, but that’s not true. Backers of 75 aren’t for working people, they want to restrict the voice of working people who stand up against them.

IT’S UNECESSARY, CURRENT LAW PROTECTS WORKERS

The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that unions cannot use a member’s dues for political purposes if the member objects.

Undercurrent law unions must inform workers of their right to opt out of political contributions at any time. And they must send audited financial statements to ensure that no unauthorized dues are used for politics.

Therefore,only employees who choose to join the union and choose not to opt out of political contributions have their dues used for politics. Consequently, 25%of state employees contribute no money to their union’s political activities.

PROP.75 VIOLATES EMPLOYEES RIGHT TO PRIVACY

Prop.75 requires members to sign written, personal disclosure forms that could be circulated in the workplace and would be submitted to a state agency.This could potentially invade an individual’s privacy and raise the threat of intimidation against public employees on the job.

Prop. 75 is an unfair power grab by big corporations that will diminish the voice of teachers, nurses, firefighters and police at a time when we need to hear them most.

Prop.76 – Education and Health Services Cuts Act Talking Points – “The Governor’sPower Grab”

CUTS SCHOOLS AND VITAL SERVICES

· This initiative cuts funding for vital programs, including education, police and fire protection, and health care.

· Our schools lost two billion dollars when Governor Schwarzenegger broke his promise to repay the money he took from education. If this initiative passes,the Governor will never have to repay that money to our schools.

· The initiative does even more damage to our schools byoverturning the voter-approved Proposition 98, eliminating the funding guarantee for education, which will lead to more overcrowded schools, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials.

· This initiative cuts school funding by over $40 billion in ten years – $6,000 per student, leading to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials. It will keep us behind states like West Virginia and Kentucky in per pupil education funding.

· It cuts funding for local government –– cutting police and firefighters, as well as local health care that protects children and the elderly.

· Even though it requires cuts to vital services and priorities like education and health care, this initiative prohibits cuts to the special interest boards like the California Dried Plum Board and porkbarrel road building projects.

ELIMINATES CHECKS AND BALANCES TO GIVE GOVERNOR NEW POWERS
· The Governor’s initiative undermines our democratic system of checks and balances by giving the Governor awesome new powers without legislative oversight –– even if you trust this Governor, who knows what future governors will do with this power.
· This initiative allows any Governor to declare a fiscal emergency whenever he or she wants. The Governor would then be able to cut any program without the approval of the Legislature or the people of California.

· Under this initiative, just 14 of the state’s legislators ––less than 12% –– could block passage of the state’s budget, triggering a fiscal emergency that would automatically give the Governor sweeping new powers tomake spending and budget decisions “at his discretion,” with absolutely no legislative oversight or accountability.

· Governor Schwarzenegger has already tried to cut vital programs and even tried to take away pensions from the widows of fallen police and firefighters. This initiative will give him and every future governor the power to do all these things and worse.

RAISES TAXES, DOESN’T SOLVE BUDGET PROBLEMS
· This initiative does nothing to prevent tax hikes. In fact, if it passes, the Governor and Legislature are free to raise car taxes, income taxes or property taxes at their will. Even the California Republican Assembly says that this initiative“actually encourages tax increases.”

· The Orange County Register calls the initiative’s spending limitations “phony.”
· The last two state finance directors say the initiative doesn’t solve the budget problem.
· A study by the Center for Government Analysis says that if the initiative would have been effect over the last 16 years, in 8 out of those 16 years there would have been more state spending, not less.
· County fiscal experts say seniors and disabled homeowners could see increases in their property taxes if cuts are made to their property tax relief programs.