California Eyes on the Election—But This Was an Important Week for State Policies and the Legislature

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The election on Tuesday is of enormous importance to the future of the country and to California as well. We’ve learned all too well that policies in Washington, D.C., have an enormous impact on our state. Whether it’s the ability of California to adopt air pollution standards that are tougher than the federal ones, fighting global warming, health coverage legislation, or other issues our state legislators and governor are working on, there are hurdles set up in our nation’s capital that preempt us or make it difficult to act.

Witness the fact that through California Attorney General Jerry Brown we are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency on global warming automobile standards, and if we are successful, a 19 other states will be able to follow our lead. Or, when it comes to health insurance proposals, there are thorny issues of federal preemption under the Employee Income and Security Act (ERISA).

And the War in Iraq, the economy, the collapse of the subprime market—virtually all the major issues decided and debated in Washington affect us as the largest state in the nation.

We will focus for the next 5 days on the election—California’s role in selecting the Democratic nominee for President who will most likely win the election in November—and the state ballot propositions. Regardless of how these contests are decided by California voters, it is important that we all turnout to vote—as we have a real role in the presidential election and the ballot propositions are important to the future of the state.

But before we go into the end of election frenzy, let’s remember that we still have a $14 billion state budget deficit. So, we have an article, “Uncollected Taxes: The Real California Budget Deficit” which is a must read and points out that the state has $8.5 billion annually in uncollected taxes that are owed. We will catch up on the votes in the Assembly and State Senate on dozens of bills on predatory lending, the budget, health care, the environment, and many more important policy areas that saw passage and defeat this last week.