Not Business As Usual
Today, September 9th, marks the end of the 2011 legislative session in California. In typical fashion, the Legislature and Governor have decide that since no one is watching they can slam through a bunch of legislation. However, in this new era of instant communications it is a lot harder to hide the sausage.
Let’s see so far this week we saw new proposals shifting implementation of the “Amazon tax”, overhauling business taxes, maneuvering to move initiatives from the June ballot to November and tweaking CEQA law to build a football stadium in Los Angeles.
Social media is pulling back the curtain surrounding the legislative process and legislators are going to have to adjust. In the old days, news cycle were daily so citizens would have no idea how the legislative process unfolded. Now news is created as it happens.
Rumors swirled early in the week that Democrats wanted to change rules when initiatives qualify for state-wide election. Under the current practice, if an initiative qualifies 131 days before the June primary, it would be voted on in June. Then on Thursday, SB 202 appeared. Around 12 noon, Friday, the text of SB 202 was finally released. Senator Hancock released her version of why SB 202 was needed. Fox and Hounds gave their assessment of SB 202. As events unfolded anyone following the hashtag #SB202 on Twitter could watch the political theater.
Any bets on the rules changing back in 2016 when Democrats select their next Presidential candidate?
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Comments
2 Comments on Not Business As Usual
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Dan Walden on
Fri, 9th Sep 2011 2:46 pm
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Mike McMahon on
Fri, 9th Sep 2011 3:00 pm
“Pass this job’s bill now!” Do you suppose we will then be able to see what’s in it? (He said… cynically…) Language makes such a difference. Whether at the State of Federal level, it would be nice to have representatives that believed in a public process of open deliberation. My hat is off to school boards that embrace open meeting laws as a genuine strength of the governance process.
Yes school boards need to be aware of the impact of social media also. Depending on your community, bloggers, Patch and other media savvy citizens are following school boards activities.
By the way, SB 202 seems to have additional motivations behind the bill. Looks like the “rainy day ballot measure” would get moved to 2014.
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