| LA Mayor Takes Steps towards state politics
by Brian Leubitz
Since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa opted out of the 2010 Governor's race, he has been fairly quite on state level politics. However, he stepped right up, and at the Sacramento Press Club, took on Prop 13:
He implored politicians to muster the courage to stop shying away from the third rails in California politics, including Prop. 13′s property tax on businesses and the constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote on taxes.
And he framed it as direct challenge to Gov. Jerry Brown:
"To Governor Brown, I say, we need to have the courage to test the voltage in some of these so-called third-rail issues, beginning with Proposition 13," Villaraigosa said. "We need to strengthen Proposition 13 and get it back to the original idea of protecting homeowners." (Political Blotter)
Of course, these are traditional issues of import to California progressives, and critical to reestablishing democracy in California. Even if Democrats are able to get 2/3 in the Legislature, changing the tax rules still matter. Look at it this way, if we are working with majority rules, we can afford to lose some conservative Democratic votes. But with the supermajority rules, the right-leaning lobbies have far more sway over a 2/3 Democratic majority as they can pick off members of the "Mod Squad."
It is good to see Villaraigosa take on Prop 13, as the more conversation the better. Whether anything comes of this is another question. |
