‘Trick or Treat’ in July!

The recent article in the California Globe covering the style of Democrat Leadership through the maneuvers of Assembly Bill 440 draw more concern and weariness from this Californian. While political shifting and backroom dealing are all matters of fact in politics, especially here in California, these last 30 days have drawn new strategies from the dusty basement shelf of depravity. So why can we assume that trick or treating has come early this year?

The first maneuver was in response to the public effort to reform Proposition 47 from 2014. Hearing of an initiative effort for the ballot to increase the penalties and thresholds for crime, the California’s Legislative Leaders decided to run their own 12 bills to address the rise in retail theft and crime. The bills sought to curve the rise in theft and provide stricter punishments on criminals.

Once the initiative effort succeeded in qualifying for the ballot, the Leadership decided that pressure to remove the effort from the ballot was needed. So the majority party added “poison pills” to almost all of the bills in the form of phase-out language stipulating that if the ballot initiative passed, these laws would be null and void. Effectively saying, “either pull your proposition and enjoy these tough on crime policies, or live with just the proposition because you can’t have both.”

The second maneuver was in response to the public effort to increase Medi-Cal reimbursement rates. Last year the Legislature created a deal with healthcare providers and hospitals that if they supported the passage of the MCO Tax (Managed Care Organization), then the revenue created by the tax would go to increasing reimbursement to healthcare providers. This increase is direly needed due to the lack of comprehensive updates to costs of care. A majority of hospitals running in the red and flirting with closure has drawn the need for this fix to the front of priorities.

Unfortunately with the budget deficit, the majority party decided to renege on their promise for the MCO Tax reimbursement increases and instead use the revenue to substitute the funds for the existing reimbursement rates, and divert the original funds (which would have amounted to an increase to healthcare) back to the general fund for pet project funding (like electric school buses) – that is until the initiative effort succeeded on qualifying for the ballot, locking in the money for reimbursement. So leadership once again adds poison pill language into the budget trailer bills with phase out language stipulating that if the ballot initiative passed, the added reimbursements in the budget to certain medical providers would be null and void. Effectively pitting the medical community against itself over the proposition and its passage.

The third maneuver was in response to the public pressure on the poison pills in the retail theft bills. Having heard about the first maneuver, the California public raised concerns and voices of disapproval over the leadership’s decision to poison the good policy. So what has California’s Supermajority done in response to the outrage? They have removed the poison pills from the anti-theft bills, which is the right thing to do, and gutted a bill with their own version of a repeal of Proposition 47. This new proposition is to be added to the ballot as well, with the stipulation that whichever choice receives more votes than the voter initiative, it is favored into law over the other.

The new proposition is vastly more narrow than the voter led initiative by limiting the legal impact of a drug dealer that sells fentanyl laced drugs (falsely), does not add fentanyl crimes to felony offenses or sentencing enhancements, ignores treatment mandates for possession of fentanyl, ignores drug crimes with a firearm, ignores high value theft enhancements, and ignores enhancements on concert crimes and great bodily injury crimes. To its limited credit, the bill/soon to be proposition does increase penalties on repeat theft (like the voter initiative) and aggregation of theft (like the voter initiative as well).

So, are California’s Leaders “leading” through the accusations made in the earlier article? I think any leadership body that has to resort to blackmail, division, and manipulation is wrong, regardless of the party that does it. Blackmailing the public with alternant options through the use of poison pills, pitting groups against each other, and manipulating the public through competing propositions are more than just “political games;” – rather, they are signs of weak leadership.

California was the land of opportunity and renown for leading the nation, I hope certain habits don’t carry forward.