No on Prop. 90

Every once in a while, a reasonable-sounding but devious proposition comes around that is incredibly bad, so bad that it drives long-standing political enemies into the same camp, so bad that it threatens to undermine the very functioning of the state of California if it passes. Prop. 13 was such a bill, that played upon real concerns about the combination of property tax hikes and people on fixed incomes to absolutely devastate local government, education funding, and the ability of the state of California to pass rational budgets on time, if at all. The proposition that required a 2/3 supermajority to raise taxes, thus forcing the state to choose between starving the government or else racking up massive borrowing debts through bond measures, was another one. For three decades, California has made itself progressively ungovernable by passing these sorts of trojan horse wrench-in-the-gears propositions, only to respond to the mess by passing yet more ill-thought-out propositions.

This year's proposition 90 is one of those historically bad initiatives. Playing upon people's fears of government abuse of eminent domain powers following a recent Supreme Court ruling on the subject, prop. 90 pretends to be about protecting property rights, but in fact is mostly about eviscerating zoning laws and environmental regulations, in hopes of making huge short-term profits for developers, encouraging uncontrollable sprawl, crippling the state's ability to regulate much of anything, and bankrupting the state by forcing it to pay out claims to landowners "affected" by laws. It is so bad in actuality that it has brought together unlikely allies like taxpayers' associations, the chamber of commerce, environmental organizations, unions, civil rights groups, the farm bureau, both the Republican and Democratic parties, and the vast majority of elected officials (one notable exception being lt. governor candidate Tom McClintock (R-wingnut)).

Basically put, prop. 90 would ban the use of eminent domain, but would also effectively freeze all zoning and other regulations of land use in perpetuity, regardless of future growth or other changes. A similar measure, measure 37, passed up in Oregon a few years ago, where it has predictably messed the state up beyond belief, to the point where a majority of Oregonians now have second thoughts about voting for the bill. This youtube clip shows the real life consequences of what prop. 90 could bring to California (three more segments in link form below):



part 2
part 3
part 4

In addition to the many newspaper editorials that have come out against 90, there is also a good editorial over at Calitics that explains more of the details of why Prop. 90 is such a hellaciously bad idea

Simply put, it's a scam. Please don't fall for it; California doesn't need another albatross tied around the state government's neck.