Susan addressing the crowd. Seated, the panelists L to R: Howard Wayne, Jeanne Brown , Steve Rivera, Anne Hoiberg, (Photos by Lois Lane)
By Lois Lane
The Point Loma Democrats met Sunday, October 26 at their usual venue, the Point Loma Assembly building.
Before the panel discussion of the propositions started, Ed Harris, still our councilmember, was there to fill us in on the Belmont Park proposed lease extension to 55 years. His take is that this will not come back to the City Council before he leaves office. He had an additional piece of information – the current lease requires the tenant to spend 2.5% of gross revenue on improvements. The proposed lease removes this requirement. This makes the proposed lease even worse than he originally projected.
Councilman Ed Harris
Attended by about 50 people, the main meeting was devoted to the Propositions, and it was a spirited presentation, highlighted by Anne Hoiberg’s Academy Award-winning performance as the voice of opposition to them all. The panel was moderated by Jeanne Brown of the League of Women Voters.
Steve Rivera represented the Democratic Party. Howard Wayne, former State Assembly member, provided the historical perspective, and Ms. Hoiberg, representing the Women’s Museum and the League of Women Voters, took on the otherwise under-represented NO voice.
The panel discuss was lively, spirited, and provided some new information. Some things to consider, if you have not already mailed in your ballot. The Democratic Party endorses YES on all except Prop 46, on which they remain neutral. Props 1 and 2 are put forth by the legislature. All others qualified via initiatives.
Proposition 1 – Water Bond. Authorizes $7.545 BILLION in bonds for water supply. Question: If there’s no water to contain, why build all these dams? Couldn’t they kind of tell us what they were planning to build with the money? Still, everybody who is anybody is in favor of it; this is a Jerry Brown favorite.
Proposition 2 – . Budget Stabilization Account. This is a complicated scheme which saves money when you have it so you can spend it when you don’t have it. This means you can’t spend it all when you do have it. Novel idea to be considered. This proposition reduces old indebtedness, while Prop 1 adds new indebtedness. Jerry Brown is all over this one, too.
Proposition 45 – Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes Initiative. Complicated. Requires insurance commissioner’s approval before health insurer change the rates. This affects only 37% of insurance –those not already governed by exchanges are those with 50 employees are less.
Prop 46 – Looks are deceiving on this one. A potpourri of different things – one is increased Medical malpractice cap for pain and suffering from $250,000 to $1.1 Million – lawyers organizations for, doctors against. Howard Wayne provided interesting perspective. In early times, propositions were bundled that had no relationship. One you REALLY wanted to get through, you bundled with one that would be very popular. Now parts are required to be “related.”
Prop 47 – Reducing some non-violent felony crimes to misdemeanors. Because NO often means YES and YES means NO in the proposition game, on this one: YES means reduce sentences for minor crimes, NO means you don’t think they are so minor as all that.
Prop 48 – Indian Gaming Compacts. This affects only two tribes, who want to build a casino off the reservation. Gov. Brown approved and the legislators approved. Turns out, however, that a lot of people think that casinos should stay on reservation property. The people in Madera care a lot. Others see Belmont Park Casino in our future.
Not much time for Linda Perrine to tell people about her series of articles in the OB Rag and San Diego Free Press, but she quickly covered them before the meeting was adjourned.
The video made of Mike Johnson, Pt. Loma Dems Vice-President is not to be missed, urging us to vote, the true “Veterans Memorial” we could each make: http://pointlomadem.org/2014/10/23/vote-to-honor-a-veteran/. This is truly worth watching.
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