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Oakland Rising Fall 2014 Voter Guide

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Page 1: Oakland Rising Fall 2014 Voter Guide
Page 2: Oakland Rising Fall 2014 Voter Guide
Page 3: Oakland Rising Fall 2014 Voter Guide

STATE PROP# DESCRIPTION OR POSITION

PROP 1 $7.12 BILLION BOND FOR CALIFORNIA’S WATER SYSTEM

Prop 1 will authorize $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for state water supply infrastructure projects, such as pub-lic water system improvements, surface and groundwater storage, drinking water protection, water recycling and ad-vanced water treatment technology. Also, water supply man-agement and conveyance, waste-water treatment, drought relief, emergency water supplies, ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration.

NEUTRAL

PROP 2 INCREASE AMOUNT OF POTENTIAL SAVINGS IN THE STATE ‘RAINY DAY’ FUND FROM 5% TO 10% OF THE GENERAL FUND

Prop 2 will alter the state’s existing requirements for the Bud-get Stabilization Account (BSA), as established by Proposition 58. The BSA is a rainy day fund. ACA 1 would also establish a Public School System Stabilization Account (PSSSA).

OPPOSE

Over the last 10 years the state budget has decreased resourcing the services that our communities need the most. While we appreciate the need to save funds for a rainy day, our greater need is to restore full funding to services and programs that ensure low-income, im-migrant and families of color have the support they need to live healthy and whole lives.

PROP 45 PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIRED FOR INSURANCE COMPANY RATES INITIATIVE.

Prop 45 will require changes to health insurance rates, or anything else affecting the charges associated with health insurance, to be approved by the California Insurance Com-missioner before taking effect. It will provide for public notice, disclosure, and hearing on health insurance rate changes, and subsequent judicial review. It will exempt employer large group health plans under any circumstances. It also prohib-its health, auto, and homeowner insurers from determining policy eligibility or rates based on lack of prior coverage or credit history.

SUPPORT

With insurance rates rising faster and faster, we believe that Prop 45 will help ensure that Insurance companies aren’t arbitrarily raising the cost of coverage on health and auto insurance. We are especially interested in restricting the Insurance Industry’s ability to increase rates based on past coverage or credit history.

PROP 46 INCREASE THE CAP ON DAMAGES THAT CAN BE ASSESSED IN MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE LAWSUITS TO OVER $1 MILLION.

Prop 46 will create the first law in the United States to require the random drug testing of physicians. Additionally, it will in-crease the cap on damages that can be assessed in medical negligence lawsuits to over $1 million.

OPPOSE

While we understand that many work-ing-class workers are randomly drug-tested, we believe that this proposition opens the door to requiring workers in other sectors to be scrutinized in the same way.

PROP 47 REDUCES THE CLASSIFICATION OF MOST NONVIOLENT CRIMES FROM A FELONY TO A MISDEMEANOR.

Prop 47 will reclassify “non-serious, nonviolent” felonies into misdemeanors, making way for about 10,000 people to return to their families and loved ones. Prop 47 will permit re-sen-tencing for anyone currently serving a prison sentence for any of the offenses that the initiative reduces to misdemeanors. This initiative would create a Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund that would receive between $150 million and $250 mil-lion per year based on prison cost savings created by Prop 47.

Specifically the following felony crimes would be reduced to misdemeanors. Shoplifting, where the value of property stolen does not exceed $950; Grand theft, where the value of the stolen property does not exceed $950; Receiving stolen prop-erty, where the value of the property does not exceed $950; Forgery, where the value of forged check, bond or bill does not exceed $95; Fraud, where the value of the fraudulent check, draft or order does not exceed $950; Writing a bad check, where the value of the check does not exceed $950; Personal use of most illegal drugs.

SUPPORT

Prop 47 will give tens of thousands of Californians a chance to change their lives by reclassifying their felonies as misdemeanors. Removing felony con-victions means that they can reenter the workforce without having to check boxes and earn wages that support them to stay on track. The funding that is saved from no longer housing these people will be placed into a fund that supports reentry services, counseling services, and education. Our prisons are overcrowded with non-violent offenders who can be productive members of our society. Prop 47 is powerful legislation that will reunite families and strengthen our local workforce. It’s fair and just. And it’s time.

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PROP 48 RATIFICATION OF GAMING COMPACTS WITH THE NORTH FORK RANCHERIA OF MONO INDIANS AND THE WIYOT TRIBE.

Prop 48 ratifies tribal gaming compacts between the state and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and the Wi-yot Tribe. It will omit certain projects related to executing the compacts or amendments to the compacts from the scope of the California Environmental Quality Act. This initiative is a veto referendum, which means that a “yes” vote is a vote to uphold or ratify the contested legislation (AB 277) that was en-acted by the California Legislature while a “no” vote is a vote to overturn AB 277.

SUPPORT

We support prop 48 because we see this as a policy that increases the self-determination of indigenous people. While the tribal politics are certainly complicated, we feel that supporting indigenous tribes to be able to generate additional funds for their communities is important to their struggle for sover-

eignty.

STATE PROP# DESCRIPTION OR POSITION

MEASURE BB

ALAMEDA COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION SALES TAX

Measure BB will implement a 30 year Transportation Expenditure Plan by renewing the 0.5 % transportation sales tax that was approved in 2000 and increasing the tax by 0.5%. This will result in a 1% sales tax in Alameda County dedicated to trans-portation expenses alone, which will expire in 2045 without voter renewal. The 30 year plan will allot $7.8 billion in spend-ing to improve and maintain transportation infrastructure and systems in the county including para-transit, street repair, bus passes for youth, and funding for the BART extension to Liver-more.

SUPPORT

While we generally don’t support regres-sive tax increases, like sales taxes, as the way to address issues, Measure BB would support important services like bus passes for young people and ensur-ing better transit for those with various accessibility needs.

Oakland Ballot Measures: The following measures will be voted on by Oakland-ers and will impact all Oakland residents. With voter turn-out expected to be low throughout the state, every vote will count.

MEASURE CC

CITY OF OAKLAND ETHICS COMMISSION AU-THORITY INCREASE CHARTER AMENDMENT.

Measure CC will amend the Oakland City Charter to grant significantly more authority to the city’s Ethics Commission, an independent entity responsible for investigating and bringing to light any questionable or corrupt actions by elected of-ficials. The measure also seeks to set aside $500,000 annually in additional funding for the commission in order to hire more staff members and to investigate elected officials in a more rigorous and thorough fashion.

SUPPORT

In order to increase public trust in Oak-land City Government, we need to have a stronger and more independent Ethics Commission with the teeth, resources, and staffing to hold elected officials and city government accountable. This mea-sure doesn’t seek to increase taxes and will serve an incredibly important func-tion in making Oakland’s City govern-ment more transparent and account-able.

MEASURE DD

CITY OF OAKLAND AND OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION.

Measure DD will amend the city charter to establish a 13-member commission to oversee the redistricting for city council elections and Oakland Unified School District elec-tions. The city council is required to go through a redistricting process every ten years. Under Measure DD, the new redis-tricting commission will go through its redistricting process for both the city council and school districts every ten years. The commission’s first act of redistricting will occur in 2021.

SUPPORT

Measure DD will take redistricting out of the hands of politicians and establish an Independent Redistricting Commission. This commission will have Commissioners from diverse racial, ethnic and econom-ic backgrounds who are more politically impartial then City Council members which means there will be less political gerrymandering. We want to see politi-cal power in the hands of residents and Measure DD will do just that!

MEASURE DESCRIPTION OR POSITION

Page 5: Oakland Rising Fall 2014 Voter Guide

MEASURE EE

CITY OF OAKLAND MUNICIPAL RETIREMENT SYS-TEM TERMINATION

Measure EE will authorize the City Council to approve the elimination of the Oakland Municipal Employee’s Retirement System (OMERS). The city will be responsible for purchasing annuities from a top-rated insurance company to continue paying the same retirement benefits to the remaining retirees in the OMERS system.

SUPPORT

We fully support workers receiving pen-sions. Measure EE doesn’t take away pensions from anyone. What it does do is close a very old pension account that is costing the City of Oakland millions of dollars and place those accounts into new plans that have lower administra-tive costs. The workers receiving this pension will continue to be paid out until the time of their deaths, but no new pensions will be added to this fund. In fact, only 9 workers pensions are housed in this fund so it’s a win-win for the City including a small increase in additional revenue of about $900,000 this year. Our hope is that those funds will be redirect-ed to critical services that our communi-ties need like fully funded senior centers, after-school programming, and keeping libraries open.

MEASURE FF

CITY OF OAKLAND MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE INITIATIVE

Measure FF will increase the minimum wage in Oakland from $9 an hour to $12.25 an hour. Workers will also be able to earn 5 to 9 paid sick days a year. Measure FF will go into effect be-ginning on March 2, 2015 and the minimum wage rate will in-crease annually on January 1st based on increases in the cost of living. The new minimum wage will impact approximately 48,000 Oakland workers while 57,000 workers will receive paid sick days.

SUPPORT

Oakland Rising is proud to support the Lift Up Oakland campaign to raise the wage. With the rising cost of housing and food, it is more critical then ever that working families be paid a fair wage. Measure FF will ensure that every worker in Oakland is paid at least $12.25 an hour and has paid sick days; and 79% of these workers will be people of color. The time to stand up for working families is now! Measure FF will Lift Up Oakland!

MEASURE N

OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PARCEL TAX

Measure N authorizes the district to impose a 10 year annual parcel tax of $120 per unit of property. This money wil go to-wards adding school programs designed to prepare students for colleges and real-world jobs to reduced dropout rates.

SUPPORT

Raising revenue in California is tough given the shackles of Prop 13, so sales taxes and parcel taxes are really the only local remedy for increasing revenue for services. Everyone wants Oakland Unified School District to support our chil-dren to do better in school and Measure N would increase funding for tutoring and counseling. There are also exemp-tions for low-income folks and seniors.

MEASURE Z: CITY OF OAKLAND POLICE SERVICES PARCEL TAX AND PARKING TAX Measure Z authorizes the city to renew for ten years a parcel tax ranging between $51.09 and $99.77 per property unit depending on the type of parcel. It would also authorize the city to continue to impose a parking tax of 8.5 percent for ten years. The projected revenue from these two taxes combined over the ten-year life of Measure Z was estimated by city officials to be $277.2 million. Not counting the 3 percent required for oversight and evaluation and $2 million for fire services, the revenue from this tax will be split 60-40, with the larger portion going to police staffing, programs and services and the small-er portion going to community violence prevention/interven-tion programs.

SUPPORTMeasure Z is the renewal of the Measure Y parcel tax that was passed in 2004. This isn’t a new tax, but Measure Z has been revamped to deal with the over-site and management questions that have been raised. The truth is, that a cops-only solu-tion isn’t a solution at all and Measure Z makes sure that there is revenue for criti-cal violence-prevention programs and services that are keeping our families safer.

MEASURE DESCRIPTION OR POSITION

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