[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Lynda Carson

The June 2008 Ballot has a dangerous measure known as Proposition 98 (California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act, or CPOFPA). If passed by the voters, Prop. 98 would terminate rent control, tenant protections, and would place homeowners at risk by allowing unscrupulous property owners to challenge existing building codes and zoning laws that may prohibit the placing of a “pig sty” next to someone’s home, or a “porn shop” next to a church or school.

There are only two state ballot measures coming up in June, one known as Prop. 98 and the other as Prop. 99. Both competing measures are meant to prevent government from taking private property for other private use, and are in response to a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows the government to take private property and turn it over to another private interest for economic development. Activists across the state, say that Prop. 98 is bad, and Prop. 99 is good.

Prop. 98 is also a stealth measure that guts protections for land, air, water, species and natural resources, according to a legal analysis by the environmental law firm of Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger.