From the California Democratic Party’s web site at http://www.cadem.org
Teachers, firefighters and nurses have launched a petition drive to put a majority vote budget on the ballot in November. Their measure changes the vote requirement to pass a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority and penalizes legislators for failing to do their most important job – passing a fair budget on time.
Year after year Republicans hold the budget hostage and are able to make extraneous demands that weaken our environmental protection laws and undermine worker protections, and they even managed to foist a Louisiana-style “Top-Two” primary on the voters of California – all in exchange for passing a budget which they are already required to do by law.
Getting this initiative to quality for the ballot will be an uphill climb for our partners unless our party’s grassroots activists engage, organize and mobilize now.
California, you are a mess. Why is the water off in the San Joaquin Valley?
Sounds like a good idea! The irony is that the firefighters and police routinely back republican candidates which are the minority that hijack the budget process. Perhaps, now they will back democratic candidates.
The majority vote on the budget is a no-brainer. But don’t tie the “Top Two” primary proposal into this. That is a good idea. It’ll help get rid of the ideologues and get the politicians to work together more to help solve our problems.