Welcome to the last month of the legislative session. You know what this means, right? You got it – this is where a lot of great legislative proposals that are geared towards empowering individuals die in committee, and legislation that centralizes power in Sacramento (at the expense of individual freedom and liberty) passes out of the Democrat-dominated legislature. Thank goodness we have a Republican Governor who has pledged to oppose any tax or fee increases. That said, the Governor and his team should be prepared for an onslaught of horrible bills.
In the newspapers today, several ‘bad idea bills’ are profiled including a Hillary-care style government-run healthcare system takeover, further regulations on firearms manufacturers that will raise the price for law-abiding citizens to purchase a gun, and the legislature wants to tell pet owners how to treat their animals – seriously.
I’m penning a column due out shortly on a real choice piece of legislation. As we all focus on eminent domain reform, and the importance of government not ‘taking’ property rights (click on the ‘Yes on 90’ ad to the right for more info), there is legislation out there that would say that if you are building a home (or a building, a freeway, or anything) and you come across signs of long-ago native American inhabitants, prepare to enter into a quagmire of process-oriented consultations and hearings with no set-ending time that, in essence, means the property owner is hosed. Don’t get me wrong, there is a system in place to allow for due consideration and responsible action by property owners who find an Indian burial site on their land — but this new legislation would significantly expand bureaucracy and regulation and basically perform the equivalent of a ‘taking’ from property owners (as well as from all of us when the building is taking place on public land). Anyways, more on this to come on this bad piece of legislation out there… (AB 2641 for those curious)
There are a lot of articles on the main page today. I will quickly draw your attention to three items that all touch on the illegal immigration issue. Assemblyman John Benoit has penned a column for us about a common-sense idea that he is introducing into the debate — that the State of California sue the federal government for the costs of incarcerating illegal foreign nationals in our prisons. Also, Assembly Republicans will be holding a serious of hearings around California to garner citizen input into the public policy debate. There are a few articles on this. And finally, don’t miss FR friend Debra Saunders’ column from the Chronicle — you won’t believe what you read. There is actually legislation proposed (and likely to pass??) that says that if you are caught driving WITHOUT a license, your car may NOT be impounded by law enforcement officials. The bill would leave in place the law that says that if you are driving with a SUSPENDED LICENSE you may have your car taken away. Translation: if an illegal alien gets pulled over, they shouldn’t lose their car. Ridiculous. We should be making it more difficult to be in this country illegally, not make it easier.
Okay, have to run…
Jon
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