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    Willie: The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives
    Willie: The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives
    Willie: The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives
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    Willie: The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives

    By Pegasus Books

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    Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives, involves the history of the initiative process as practiced in California. Increasingly in California, the state’s biggest and most controversial issues and laws not are settled through the intended legislative process, but through initiatives, which, though necessary in extraordinary times, are unsuitable for settling major issues with lasting consequences.
    In 1911, the corrupting influence of the Southern Pacific Railroad on the California State Legislature caused voters to adopt the “direct initiative,” the “indirect initiative” and the “referendum” as a means to bypass an irresponsible and an unresponsive Legislature and to repeal laws that did not benefit the people of California.
    In 1978, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann used the direct initiative in order to bring about necessary tax reform in the state, and while there was an immediate benefit to struggling taxpayers, the greatest and most enduring benefit continues to be realized by the major property owners – the individuals and groups who owned large apartment complexes, business parks, and real estate development companies – these groups were the special interests for whom property tax reform was proposed.
    Proposition 13 And Other Major Initiatives takes up the initiative process as it has elated to tax reform, schools, spending, immigration and affirmative action, with elaboration on these issues and the scope of debate.
    Götterdammerung takes up Proposition 140 from 1990, the term limits initiative, which on its face was meant to eliminate “career politicians,” but was really purposed to “get Willie Brown,” to the detriment and ruin of the state. California, once touted as “the fifth largest economy in the world,” is now in decline, and the direct initiative process, exploited by special interests as a way to manipulate the state’s massive population, has been a large factor in the trials of the state.
    Look for other excerpts from the book, Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era online and at ebookstores and libraries.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Books
    Release dateMay 18, 2011
    ISBN9781452416601
    Willie: The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives
    Author

    Pegasus Books

    About Pegasus Books Since its inception in 1998, Pegasus Books has anticipated a publishing industry that would evolve from a system of tradition and exclusivity to one of access and opportunity for thousands of good writers who, despite literal lifetimes of effort, were simply unable to break into a system built on cronyism, luck and institutional favoritism. On the other hand, there were the vanity presses, places where no accomplished, self-respecting writer would sacrifice his or her hard-wrought work. As a result, many great writers with incredible works were locked out of the process. Fortunately, the creation and availability of desktop publishing applications and Print-on-Demand providers have changed the course of a reluctant multi-billion dollar industry, and the Internet continues to influence that change. As a result, there are more opportunities now than ever for writers, published and unpublished, for those with agents or on their own. Pegasus Books is a traditional small-to-medium press, dedicated to publishing the works of aspiring new authors and providing greater opportunities and support to established writers by being at the vanguard of this transformation. We only expect our authors to match our passion and dedication to producing high-quality books and related products. We want our readers to enjoy consistently creative, thoughtful works in their many formats. MARCUS MCGEE Curriculum Vitae Birth dateAugust 8, Casablanca Morocco Locale 19XX– 19XXCasablanca, Morocco 1964 – 1967Madrid, Spain 1967 – 1969Omaha, Nebraska 1969 – 1984Sacramento, California Valley High School (Speech, Debate, Languages, Music) California State University, Sacramento (Communication Studies major, French Language & Theatre Arts minors) 1984 - presentSacramento, CA and Los Angeles, CA Writing/Production History 1982Three plays: Solomon and Constance, Michael Angelo, Stevie: The Eighth Wonder of the World 1983Produced and directed Stevie at Sierra II Theatre, Sacramento, July; wrote stage play Table 21 Wrote No More Cheesecake!; began first novel 1985Completed novel Deus Ex Machina, completed two plays: Caesar and Kidstuff 1986Wrote stage play Dream and one-act Fashion 1987Adapted Dream as screenplay; Piss Only on the Porcelain, short stories Till Death Do Us Part, Mr. Peacock, Anthropophagi 1988Wrote The Love Tragedies and Remember 1990Produced, directed and starred in No More Cheesecake! at the Sacramento Community Center Theatre, March; began Willie Brown biography 1994Wrote Mommy! There’s A Little Boy Under My Bed! 1996Completed Willie: The Man, The Myth & The Era; wrote short stories 1998Founded Pegasus Books; Published An Essay: On Niggers and Squirrels; began writing legal novel; wrote Black Bertha 1999Published short story collection: Four Stories; finished novel; wrote Apology 2000Published novel Legal Thriller; Published An Essay: On The Execution of Timothy McVeigh 2001Published short story collection: Synchronicity; began new novel 2002Published thriller The Last Year 2003Researched and developed Griot film project 2004Completed short story collection: The Silk Noose; began sequel to Legal Thriller 2005-06 Published The Silk Noose; researched and developed thriller Viral Vector; continued writing Murder From the Grave 2007-08 Completed Murder From the Grave; began writing ViralVector; founded Parnassus Press Partnership Publishing 2009-10: Published Murder From the Grave; published Shadow In The Sky, published Moment of Truth, published Mommy, There’s A Little Boy Under My Bed! completed Viral Vector; began work on An Old Negro Spiritual and An Essay On What They Called Us; Borders Book tour of the Northwest – Murder From The Grave a bestseller for region in Q4 2010 2011Wrote and published How To Eat An Elephant and Two Matadors; converted all books to eBooks; greater emphasis on publishing new writers; wrote Obama's Shirt and two additional books under pseudonym. Extras: Fluent in French, competent at Latin and Spanish; accomplished at saxophone and other woodwinds; strong science, math, history, political science and religions background Hobbies: Reading history and philosophy; theatrical production; music and movies Passions: Writing, research, stories, wine, art, Odd Fact: Marcus managed an upscale/political/lobbyist hangout Chinese restaurant called Frank Fat’s, one block from the California State Capitol, for fourteen years.

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      Book preview

      Willie - Pegasus Books

      Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era

      California’s Initiatives

      by

      Marcus McGee

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      * * * * *

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Pegasus Books/Marcus McGee on Smashwords

      Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era

      California’s Initiatives

      Copyright © 1995, 2011 by Marcus McGee

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      ISBN 978-1-4524-1660-1

      Comments about Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era, California’s Initiatives and requests for additional copies, book club rates and author speaking appearances may be addressed to Marcus McGee or Pegasus Books c/o Ms. McGhee, P.O. Box 235, Neptune, New Jersey, 07754, or you can send your comments and requests via e-mail to mmcgee@pegasusbooks.net or to contact_us@pegasusbooks.net.

      Table of Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      PROPOSITION 13 AND OTHER MAJOR INITIATIVES

      Proposition 13 – Jarvis Gann – 1978

      Campaign Reform

      Proposition 130 – Ancient Redwoods – 1990

      Proposition 37 – California State Lottery – 1984

      Proposition 98 – School Funding – 1988

      Proposition 174 – Educational Vouchers – 1993

      Proposition 165 – Budget Process, Welfare – 1992

      Proposition 187 – Illegal Aliens, Ineligibility for Public Services – 1994

      Affirmative Action – 1996

      True Reform

      GÖTTERDAMMERUNG

      A Petty Beginning

      The Initiative

      The Battle

      Compromise Proposal?

      Partisan Divide

      Solution for the Future

      References

      INTRODUCTION

      This book attempts to explain the history and the significance of the Initiative Process in the State of California.

      In the constitution of the State of California, enacted in 1849, under Article IV, Section 1 provided that the Legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and Assembly, which shall be designated The Legislature of the State of California. To that end, we currently pay our 120 state legislators roughly $100,000 each per year, plus a $146 per diem and provide other perks so that these members can focus on making laws to the benefit of constituents and California.

      However, the Legislature has not always proved itself responsible and responsive to the will of the people it was meant to represent, yielding instead to the designs of special interests, which have used money and other enticements to elect and influence legislators to prioritize their issues of concern above those of represented voters.

      The initiative process was established in California on October 10, 1911, as a result of voter frustration with the influence of the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Legislature. Then Governor Hiram Johnson led a populist movement, which offered the initiative and the referendum, giving the people a mechanism to propose constitutional amendments and statutory revisions, and to adopt or reject those proposed.

      The direct initiative was a method for the voters to bypass the legislature and have an issue of concern put directly on the ballot for voter approval or rejection.

      The indirect initiative, on the other hand, was a method by which the voters could propose desired legislation to the Legislature. Upon adoption, the petition was transmitted from the Secretary of State to the Legislature, which had 40 days to enact or reject without change or to amend the proposed law. If the Legislature failed to enact without change or amendment, or if it rejected the proposed law, the Secretary of State had to submit it to voters for approval or rejection in the next general election. In the event that the indirect initiative was accepted without change or amendment by the Legislature, it then became law.

      Unfortunately, the indirect initiative was repealed in the 1966 November 8 election, in a time which ironically marked the beginning of the proliferation and abuse of the direct initiative process in California. Instead of being proposed to the Legislature, as provided with the indirect initiative, many current adopted proposals end up before the California Supreme Court. The problems with legislation by initiative are twofold.

      The first issue involves fiscal viability. In the Legislature, laws requiring funding must pass though the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to make sure they are fiscally sound. These same laws must pass though Assembly and Senate committees to test for legal soundness, to make sure the proposals are in fact legal and do not create whole new sets of problems and issues worse than those meant to be corrected.

      Thus legislation by initiative is an ineffective method for proposing laws in California. It was meant as a safeguard to the people in extraordinary times, when the Legislature behaved irresponsibly and was unresponsive, until the voters could elect more responsive representatives. Instead, it has become a tool for special interests to subvert and bypass the legislative process. And it has provided the means for our paid legislators to hedge and hide. It has given them political cover on the most important issues facing Californians.

      Rather than taking up risky issues involving taxation, education, spending, crime and punishment, immigration, affirmative action, gaming and gay marriage, our well paid legislators sit safely on the sidelines to watch special interests manipulate and influence voters into passing poor laws, sometimes illegal and sometimes against their own stated objectives and goals.

      Creating legislation is appropriately the job of our paid legislators, and so the focus of voters should be electing responsible and responsive legislators to represent them. That being done, voters should monitor, but they should not mettle in the legislative process, which is to their own detriment.

      California, once touted as the fifth largest economy in the world, has been in decline for years, going from huge budget surpluses and taxpayer refunds to record deficits, in the billions of dollars, with no end in sight. And though Californians apparently love their initiatives, many if not most of these proposals are introduced, sponsored and funded by special interests, and some of these initiatives have led to the decline and ruin of the state.

      The following is an examination of some of the most significant direct initiatives enacted during The Willie Brown Era, and the motivations and debates that accompanied their passage or rejection. At the end, I will propose my own solution, which, not surprising, is unoriginal, but sensible.

      Note: These chapters were completed in 1994-1995

      Willie – The Man, the Myth and the Era

      PROPOSITION 13

      AND OTHER MAJOR INITIATIVES

      THE WILLIE BROWN ERA

      In December 1964, young San Francisco lawyer Willie Brown came to Sacramento to begin the first swearing-in ceremony of the more than fifteen bi-annual oaths of office that would involve his participation. The ceremony, three decades later in December 1994, would be his last as an Assembly Member.

      His thirty-one years in the California Assembly coincided with a separate and unique period for politics in the state, which can aptly be called The Willie Brown Era. When he entered the Assembly, then Speaker Jesse Unruh was an undisputable boss in state politics. In fact, Willie’s election marked the beginning of a contemporary Legislature, as Unruh modernized and strengthened it by reducing committee sizes and assignments, hiring full-time staff to aid committees, hiring staff for the Assembly itself and raising legislative salaries. Unruh’s bold measures caused many to credit him with California converting to a full-time Legislature. Jesse Unruh also consolidated and strengthened the powers of the Assembly Speaker and party caucus.

      Willie eventually was heir to that awesome power and used it in ways even Big Daddy Unruh could not have imagined. Yet during that thirty year period, California politics have evolved more radically than at any other period in state history.

      The use of the statewide initiative was merely one element of that evolution, but it was perhaps one of the most significant and potentially insidious developments. An examination of state records related to laws and government will provide various other elements of revolutionary change in the era.

      Notwithstanding, Willie Brown was the one man who played important roles in nearly all the components of California’s evolution during the period. It is impossible to consider the evolution of the direct initiative in California without also considering Willie Brown and the influence he has asserted on the process. Likewise, it is impossible to consider an inquiry into the life of Willie Brown without also considering the political background and various elements in the evolution of the initiative as they have come to influence his political and personal life.

      I can demonstrate how inter-related Willie has been to the initiative process by referring to the many measures in the late 1980s purposed to limit his power as Speaker and various other policy measures he went out and defeated, but that is not necessary. I need only refer my audience to Proposition 140 of 1990, the term-limits initiative, a statewide measure purposed to achieve what no man had been able to accomplish: Get Willie Brown.

      Willie had said that he wanted to be Speaker perpetually, but in June 1995 he was forced [indirectly by term-limits] to relinquish his speakership to Doris Allen, a Republican. Thus, as it was the consequences of a passed initiative that precipitated an end to The Willie Brown Era, the significance of a chapter on the subject cannot be underestimated.

      The legislative power of this State is vested in the California Legislature which consists of the Senate and the Assembly, but the people reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum.

      circa 1912, Article IV, Section One

      Constitution of the State of California

      By definition, as contained in the California Constitution, the initiative is the power of the people to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them.¹ This makes reasonable sense, as the drafters of this addition to the original Constitution certainly realized that there would be extraordinary times

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