This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on March 25, 2010.
While some lawmakers and state employees still soaking in the details of the federal health care reform bill and the impact it may have on the state’s budget crisis, other news is sprouting. An initiative to legalize a drug is in the works, voters are telling lawmakers where they want to see cuts in the budget and a UC San Francisco professor offers his stance on privatizing the higher-ed institutions.
So that’s what’s going on in this week in good old California and here’s your CBCD update.
Legalizing pot: When California voters head to the polls in November, they will decide whether the state will make history again — this time by legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults.
The state was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana use, with voters passing it in 1996. Since then, 14 states have followed California’s lead, even though marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
“This is a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to end failed marijuana prohibition in this country,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We really can’t overstate the significance of Californians being the first to have the opportunity to end this public policy disaster.”
California is not alone in the push to expand legal use of marijuana. Legislators in Rhode Island, another state hit hard by the economic downturn, are considering a plan to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less by anyone 18 or older.
Proponents of the measure say legalizing marijuana could save the state $200 million a year by reducing public safety costs. At the same time, it could generate tax revenue for local governments.
If voters had it their way: A new poll shows California voters would cut the budgets on prisons and parks if they had the right to.
According to the The San Francisco Chronicle, a recent polling company asked California voters how they would solve the $20 billion-plus budget hole.
“If California voters controlled the state budget, a majority would agree to cut spending in only two areas – the state’s prisons and parks, according to a Field Poll to be released today. If those areas were eliminated entirely, meaning no prisons or parks, it would take care of a little less than half of California’s $20 billion deficit.
The poll also found near majority support for cuts to environmental regulation and public transportation, but voters surveyed roundly rejected cuts to education, which makes up more than half of all state general fund spending. This year, general fund spending is $84.5 billion.”
Director of the Field Poll Mark DiCamillo told the Chronicle that most polled believed there were “inefficiencies” with the way the state government is operated and said lawmakers should take the poll into consideration.
“DiCamillo said voters believe there is massive inefficiency in state government and that earlier polls found majorities who believe the state could cut its budget by up to $16 billion, or nearly a fifth of all spending, by just focusing on inefficiency.
He said lawmakers should focus their initial efforts on those types of cuts to show the public they share concerns about waste, though the public’s expectations may be unrealistic.”
Privatizing higher education: UC Regents will look into tuition increases as a mean of cutting back on operating costs, which may move the institution closer toward privatization.
According to an opinion piece by UCSF professor Stanton Glantz and published in The San Francisco Chronicle, the increases would be a some-what duplication of what private universities already do.
“The UC regents would be using tuition and fees charged by private universities, which serve far fewer students and were never designed to create opportunities for the people of California, as the basis for setting fees for UC professional schools. (The regents already implemented the proposed policy for the law school at Berkeley, which already costs more than Stanford’s law school, $48,700 versus $42,400.) While the proposal coming to the regents is just for professional schools, the same arguments already have been made internally at the University of California to justify higher undergraduate tuition, too.
Facing public opposition, Schwarzenegger has done what every smart politician does: He has pretended to change. He decried the fact that California spends more on prisons than higher education and called for a constitutional amendment to commit at least 10 percent of the state budget to the University of California and California State University and limit prison funding to 7 percent.”
Associated Press contributed to this report. Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.