Democracy Now: Help Repeal California's 2/3's Budget Rule

California is one of only three states that requires a two-thirds vote in the legislature to pass a budget. This rule empowers a small cabal of extremist lawmakers to hold the state budget hostage until their demands are included in any final agreement. Now California taxpayers will suffer the consequences.

This year, as California's economy teetered on the brink of insolvency, a small minority of ultra-conservative legislators refused to support a bipartisan budget agreement unless their proposals were adopted. To keep our government, schools and health clinics running, the majority was forced to include rollbacks of environmental and toxics regulations, regressive tax increases on working families, supersized tax breaks for big corporations, and drastic cuts in education, public safety, and healthcare.

This year's budget fiasco has created an outcry for governance reform. We must re-assert the democratic principle of majority rule and end the tyranny of an out of touch minority. We are gathering names now to gear up for a ballot measure fight next year. Help us end the 2/3's rule and take back control of our government.

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V, V for VICTORY!  by Marcy Winograd

Let us thank Lt. Governor John Garamendi and State Controller John Chiang for voting down the proposed 14-story-high LNG terminal Australia's BHP Billiton wanted to build off the Malibu and Oxnard coast.  Our Palisades Democratic Club Executive Board voted overwhelmingly to oppose the project, writing letters and calling commissioners to urge them to reject it.

After a long day of testimony on April 9th, the State Lands Commission voted against the project 2-1, with only Schwarznegger's appointee voting for the terminal.

This means the Malibu/Oxnard project is, in all probability, dead.  (More LNG proposals are on the docket for Los Angeles County though, so stay tuned ...)

Though newspaper accounts mentioned a crowd of 500, the head count was more like 2,000 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, where Maureen Cruise and I planned to testify on behalf of the Palisades Democratic Club.  Amidst a sea of blue Sierra Club "Terminate the Terminal" t-shirts, our Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, our former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, Chumash healers, Malibu's Pierce & Keeley Brosnan, the incredible former PUC commissioner Loretta Lynch, Mayor Maricela Morales of Pt. Hueneme, Santa Barbara Democratic activist Bob Handy, a rabbi, scientists, actors and activists spoke of asthma, smog, greenhouse gasses, and environmental racism (the pipes would run through Oxnard, a city over 70% Latino).

Days before the California Coastal Commission had released an environmental impact report noting the LNG terminal would create unacceptable levels of air pollution and worsen greenhouse gases.

With the doors shut, the room so crowded the fire marshal was sending warning notes to commissioners conducting the hearing, school children stood outside, their faces pushed up against the glass to get a peek at the action.  In the end, we never testified, ceding our time out of respect to a Sierra Club organizer who asked the crowd to forgo further testimony so the official deciders could vote on the issue before everyone had to go home.
 
"All those opposed to the project please stand up," said the Sierra Club organizer.  Hundreds shot to their feet.  Before the next name was called, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who chaired the hearings, added, "Wait a minute.  All those in favor of the project please stand."  

Only five suits slowly rose from their chairs. Were they Billiton reps or Oxnard Chamber of Commerce men?
 
Yes, it's lonely at the top of an LNG terminal.  
 
The vote to nix the project was a great victory for our children and our children’s children and for all of us who grew up body surfing off the coast off Malibu.  I remember the waves, sometimes gentle, other times furious, crashing over and under me as I rode to shore on the best amusement ride in the world.  When we looked back, we saw, smelled, inhaled only the mysteries of the sea, never an LNG terminal towering over the waves, spewing noxious particles.  
 
Iraq.  Darfur. Katrina.  Horror and heartache are everywhere, but beauty is what binds us to this glorious earth.  Our California coast is a gem, so let’s keep up the good fight to protect it.