by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

While the California Republican Party is busy defending tax breaks for yacht owners, Democrats are busy working to decrease barriers to voting and increase participation in democracy. The California Democratic Party Platform even talks about increasing participation:

To promote honest leadership and open government, California Democrats will:

[...]

• Increase voter participation by advocating for extended voting hours and/or days, scheduling elections on weekends, or by declaring Election Day a holiday

While I agree that would be great, the current perspective of the CDP Platform is to seek increases in the percentage of participation among registered voters. Yet there is even greater potential to increase voter participation by reforming barriers to voter registration. This is the premise behind recent national legislation by Democrats in Congress and a bill by Assemblyman Curren Price for California.

These are two pieces of legislation that deserve to be followed closely, which means you'll probably need to follow on the blogs as so far both reforms have been largely ignored by traditional media.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Mark Leno [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The same week thousands of layoff notices were delivered to teachers and school staffs throughout California Assembly Democrats voted for new legislation that would have reduced the number of layoffs by closing the "gusher giveaway" tax break for oil companies. But Assembly Bill 9xxx failed to get the two-thirds vote needed for passage because Assembly Republicans voted against education and for Big Oil. Just last month the Assembly Republicans also killed an effort to close a tax loophole for wealthy yacht owners. Democrats insist the state’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit be eliminated with a mix of cuts and new revenues, not through the "across the board, spending cuts only" approach proposed by the Governor. There’s more in this Assembly Web Report...

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi:

"Our state and its people cannot prosper in the 21st century if we force our schools to live on a fiscal starvation diet," Garamendi said Thursday at Sacramento City College.

Assemblymember Dave Jones:

However, in doing so my Republican colleagues in the State Assembly decided that while they were prepared to cut education funding and health care for the poor, they just couldn't stomach closing the yacht tax loophole. Too painful, apparently, to the Thurston Howell IIIs of the world. So they refused to provide the 2/3 vote necessary to close the yacht tax loophole. In doing so they robbed the poor to help subsidize tax avoidance by rich yacht owners. Are those the values we want reflected in our state budget? Those aren't my values, that's for sure.

Jack O'Connell, who is nominally in charge of education for the state, should find something else to emphasize.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Assembly Republicans have voted to protect the wealthy, yacht-owning, Thurston Howell the Thirds from paying taxes on their expensive boats. Speaker Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) says its callous and reckless for Republicans to protect the yacht owners by refusing to close a tax loophole while at the same time voting for spending cuts to the poor, the elderly and school. In this Assembly Web Report the Speaker says the yacht tax loophole votes by Assembly Republicans shows their priorities are not the same as most Californians.

Meanwhile, David Dayen at Calitics has a follow-up to yesterday's California Yachting Association ad.