It’s another November, so we Californians are again battered with ballot measures to choose between or be bad citizens. To put an end to the cycle of suffering, we can increase the signature threshold for initiatives, plus ban paid signature gathering so that the power of initiative is only a true safety valve when our…
It’s time for my ballot measure recommendations once again! There are seven in California this November, but two are a matched set competing against each other, so they only need six writeups. (There were none in June! It’s like a beautiful dream. Not a coincidence: the Legislature has been moving as much as possible to…
When I went door-to-door talking up a candidate who wanted to fund more affordable housing, people sometimes replied, “OK, but what does ‘affordable’ really mean? Who is it affordable for?” This question comes up a lot. I remember being unsure at the time whether this was genuine confusion or just casting uncertainty and doubt as…
Here I follow up my previous guide on the state measures this year, adding to them those being voted on by Oakland residents – meaning, Oakland city and school measures, and Alameda County measures. Thank you for reading. Spoiler: I say yes on all. But they weren’t slam-dunks. Jurisdiction Designation & description Recommendation Alameda County…
Hello all of you braving the treacherous fields of 2020 to vote once again on the California propositions. A lot has happened this year that we wouldn’t have predicted, but nothing has reduced the need for a bold, empowered government ready to tax and spend more than before to ensure everyone is included in society.…
We face another election and, as always, I am here to inform you on the proposals on your ballots – not so many this March, but come November, there will be a deluge. (In the presidential primary, vote Warren! And sign up here if you want to get email alerts to future updates like this.)…
Thank you for continuing to read my ballot writeups. See my statewide recommendations for Props 1-12 in my previous post here. My measure discussions for Oakland can be briefer, because a guiding principle unifies most of them. As I introduced my last post: I think most of my readers would now accept that we are…
I usually write up my recommendations for California ballot measures assuming intelligence but little context on the part of my audience. When measures increase taxes to fund government programs, I lay out, step by step, the case that these are important social priorities that need more public investment. The events of the last two years…
Here are my recommendations on the ballot measures this June 5 that people in Oakland and Alameda County will be voting on – including the Bay Area-wide Regional Measure 3. Please vote, and find the official voter guide here. A summary of my local and statewide recommendations (which were in the last post): Measure number/description Jurisdiction…
The statewide ballot measures up in June 2018 are sedate and understated by comparison with November 2016, but there are some stinkers hidden among them.As usual, I offer dual recommendations for you to consider – one recommending a “yes” for anything with objective benefit (“utilitarian”), the second also weighing whether it needed to be a ballot measure…
