Can California Be Fixed?

In the coming weeks, the coalition Repair California will begin the official process of calling a state constitutional convention, submitting ballot-initiative language to Attorney General Jerry Brown's office. Repair California proposes to restructure government through a state constitutional convention. The Prospect talked to John Grubb, official spokesperson for Repair California, about the crisis in California and the emerging movement to reform government. Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via NewsRack (Recession)

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Chris Finnie
1.8
by Chris Finnie - Sep. 28, 2009

Lots of mistakes--large and small--and a complete failure to fact check anything Grubb said. For example, Courage Campaign is an online issues group like MoveOn. While the idea of a constitutional convention may poll well, so does the idea of more government by citizen initiative--which is one of the ways the state got into this mess. We pay some of the highest taxes in the country only if you look at the total collected. However, we have one of the biggest populations in the country. Our per capita taxation doesn't put us anywhere near the top. And Grubb fails to mention that we rank 49th in spending per student. Or that Republicans pushed through $2.5 billion/year in tax cuts for the 6 biggest corporations in the state as part of this year's budget "negotiations" (or as police commonly call such interactions, extortion). In short, good GOP talking points, and not much else.

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