For the record, how we decided on 2008 props

CA props:

1A: High Speed Rail-- YES-- we want to be able to visit friends in LA for $55 and in only 2.5 hours! PASSED

2: Farm Animal Standards--YES, We've got a friend who has his own chickens and sheep and who lets them range around freely and the eggs the chicken give are just amazing. It makes me so happy to see them walking around like satisfied, contented creatures, and I can't imagine that there's anything good about even confining chickens as much as so-called "Free-range" chickens normally are. PASSED

3: Children's Hospital Bond-- NO This was tough, but one thing that I kept thinking was, as wonderful as it would be to fund research in children's ailments, emergency rooms and hospitals that erve adult are closing all over this state. I want better funding for ALL hospitals. (And I want universal health care, but that's a different issue.) PASSED

4: Waiting Period and Parental Consent for Minors seking and abortion-- NO NO NOYou can probably guess my feeling on this one. FAILED

5: Rehab for non-violent Drug Offenders--Yes. I'd just rather fund people to get help and get out of the prison system than just thrown them into the meat grinder. FAILED

6: Police and Law Enforcement Funding--NO This one was hard also, but I just didn't see that we need to fund more prisons. Plus I didn't understand how the money was going to be allocated. PASSED

7: Renewable Energy: NO, another tough one to get through, but the big sticking point for me was that it was placed on the ballot with no consulting of any environmental groups. PASSED

8: Ban Gay Marriage NO, for all the obvious reasons -- including that it violates the constitution in my opinion. PASSED

9: Victim's rights: NO--This one is funny. The local Bay Guardian notes that it was put on the ballot by "billionaire Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Nicholas, who has poured millions into the two campaigns. But a funny thing happened to Nicholas on the way to becoming California's poster boy for law and order. In June, he was indicted on numerous counts of securities fraud and drug violations (including spiking the drinks of technology executives with ecstasy and operating a "sex cave" staffed with prostitutes under his house). He insists he's innocent." PASSED

10: Alternative Fuel-- NO-- the general sense I've gotten is that while on first glance it looks good, it actually is designed to support natural gas industry over the development of any other serious non-fossil fuel options. FAILED

11: Redistricting. NO-- I always get shivers when they start talking about gerrymandering. This one puts an EQUAL number of democrats and republicans to be on the commission deciding district lines--expcept that there are more dems than republicans in this state, so that's not a representative breakdown for the commission. PASSED

12: Veteran' Bond: Yes. This one just extends a previous existing bond, and I feel like even though I think we should do other things for Vets like expand the GI bill, at least we can do this.... PASSED

And for San Francisco Props-- jeez, how many do we have to go through?? I must admit I think we were running out of steam at the end...

A: Bond for seismic upgrades for SF General Hospital: Yes-- gotta keep the hospital standing. PASSED

B: Affordable Housing Fund: Yes, it doesn't raise taxes and affordable housing is a serious issue here in SF. FAILED

C: Prohibit City employees from serving on Charter Boards and Commissions: No. This one would bar ANY city employees from ever sitting on commissions, not just managerial level. That seems unnecessary. FAILED

D: Finance Pier 70 waterfront District Development: Yes, this revives a really sadly run-down area of the city that could be a good site for urban development. PASSED

E: Change number of signatures required to recall a city official: Yes, this raises the number of sigs required for a recall (which I think is a dumb idea anyhow, but we're stuck with recalls) so at least it won't be as easy to have a recall. PASSED

F: Hold scheduled city elections on even numbered years: Yes, this makes the elections coincide with presidential elections and mid-term elections. We went back and forth on this one -- do silly ballot props or important mayoral elections get lost in the fray in presidential election years? Well, here we are reading through all these stupid propositions, so it's not true for us at least. And voter turnout is definitely better on even year elections. FAILED

G: Allow retirement system credit for unpaid parental leave: Yes, this doesn't cost a thing, it just qualifies employees to include parental leave time as a "credit" counting toward their retirement. They would be able to buy the credits, so it's not a burden on the system. PASSED

H: Clean energy act: YES, this puts the city on a schedule to changing over to renewable energy and it includes funding for a green job initiative, which is very cool. PG & E is funding the "No on H" campaign basically because they'd wind up out of business, unless they'd care to switch to providing clean energy. FAILED

I: Create the Office of Independent Rate Payer Advocate. No-- This one sets up an office that advises PG & E on rates, but embedded in H is essentially the same oversight, so since I voted yes on H, this one I said No on. FAILED

J: Creating a Historic Preservation Commission: Yes. This updates the composition of the office that oversees landmarking and preservation. It's been formulated by groups on either side, both developers and also preservationists, so it hasn't got any opposition. PASSED

K: Changing Enforcement of Prostitution and Sex Worker laws: Yes, Personally I believe that you shouldn't have laws you can't enforce even on the books, but this one at least downgrades the priority of enforcing the prostitution laws in SF. FAILED

L: Funding a Community Justice Center: No, I voted against this one just on principle. The CJC is already approved and funded. This prop only funds it at a slightly higher level and wound up ont he ballot basically as a political maneuver to get publicity. Whatever. FAILED

M: Changing Residential Rent Ordinance to prohibit tenant harassment by landlords: Yes. We voted this way because we have a landlady who totally harasses tenants. She's crazy of course, but it does happen. PASSED

N: Changing real property transfer tax rates: Yes. This only increases tax on properties sold in SF for over $5 million. PASSED

O: Replace Emergency Response fee with Access Line tax: YES. This one updates the definition of what a phone line is (which is now completely different from when the law was first written) and changes the classification of the fee that is used for 911 service. It doesn't cost anything extra, but helps keep the service up to date with emerging communication technology. PASSED

P: Change the SF Transportation Board makeup: NO The Board of Supes oversees the Muni right now and replacing the board with an appointed commission will have the net effect of leaving each neighborhood without a specific advocate for the transportation needs of their area. I like it staying int he hands of the supervisors, who are elected officials and therefore more accountable for what ahppens with Muni. FAILED

Q: Modify the Payroll Expense tax: Yes, this makes it so that "partnerships", such as law firms, which ordinarily are exempt from payroll tax, will have to treat their income as taxable. It does exempt small businesses that have a payroll under $250,000. PASSED

R: Rename the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant to George W. Bush Sewage Plant. No. Funny, but just a grandstanding move with no real point, and in my opinion makes us look like nutjobs. FAILED

S: Changing the Budget Set aside Policy: No Personally I wasn't really swayed one way or the other on this, so I voted No to keep the status quo. I see no reason to change policies on the budget earmarks. PASSED

T: Free and low-cost Substance Abuse programs: Yes. Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but I believe that it's better to have treatment facilities and get people off the streets wherever we can. For $13 million, I think we can make the investment into helping clean up people's lives and maybe get them off the city streets. PASSED

U: Policy against the deployment of armed forces in Iraq: Yes. More than just a policy maneuver, it sets the precendent that San Francisco is against spending SF money on funding for the local operations that must go toward funding the war-- it doesn't prevent the funding, but it sets our default policy as against it. PASSED

V: Policy against terminating JROTC program in schools: No. Too many negatives here to unwind. Basically JROTC is out of the public schools, which is how I think it should be, and though this is a measure in support of restoring it, ultimately prop V does nothing-- it doesn't even have the ability to restore JROTC, it's just meant to send a message. PASSED



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