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San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio today announced his endorsement of the Citizen Power Initiative, a proposed ballot initiative that will ban the practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to politics through public employee unions’ paychecks.

The Citizen Power Campaign (www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org) is currently collecting signatures to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot. Proponents have until mid-April to render nearly 700,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State.

Carl DeMaio, San Diego’s “City Hall Watchdog” is a long-time advocate of government reform. “We must pass the Citizen Power Initiative if we hope to solve our budget and pension problems. State and local public employee unions helped create these problems by using their enormous political power. They have this power because they can force workers to join and pay for political campaigns. This initiative helps fix that.”

DeMaio is recognized as a national leader in government reform and taxpayer protection initiatives. In 2003, his “San Diego Citizen’s Budget Project” uncovered many of San Diego’s financial problems, and he authored a comprehensive reform plan to fix them. In 2006, he helped to author, qualify and pass a landmark pension reform initiative, requiring future pension benefit increases be put to a public vote.

“Pension costs have reached 69 percent of City payroll,” says DeMaio, “This means that we’re paying more for retirees than we are are for workers providing needed services. This is a direct result of the public employee unions’ political power. The Citizen Power Initiative puts that power back in the hands of taxpayers, where it belongs.”

California Representative Tom McClintock today announced his endorsement of the Citizen Power Initiative, a proposed ballot initiative that will ban the practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to politics through public employee unions’ paychecks.

The Citizen Power Campaign (www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org) is currently collecting signatures to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot.  Proponents have until mid-April to render nearly 700,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State.

Tom McClintock, who represents California’s fourth congressional district, said, “The Citizen Power Initiative is absolutely necessary to bring real reform to Sacramento. People on both sides of the aisle know that public employee unions have too much power in Sacramento and stand in the way of real reform. They have that power because they have a special privilege no one else in politics has – the ability to automatically take money from their union members’ paychecks without their permission and use it for politics. This initiative will stop that automatic flow of money by simply taking the state out of the business of collecting political contributions on behalf of union bosses.”

“Restoring power the California’s citizens through the Citizen Power Initiative is our Number One priority in 2010 and Tom McClintock’s endorsement proves his commitment to stand on our side,” said Mark Meckler, one of the measure’s five proponents who as the California co-coordinator and a National Coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots.

Willie Brown is calling for an “honest dialogue” on California’s public employee unions.  Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and longtime Speaker of the California Assembly, has pointed out the obvious – that our civil servants now “[run] the show” in California.  They have “job security for life” and “pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers”.  Standing against them, says Brown, is “politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders”.

Willie Brown made the following comments in his San Francisco Chronicle column:

If we as a state want to make a New Year’s resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it’s time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we’ve become.

Take the civil service.

The system was set up so politicians like me couldn’t come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives.

Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show.

The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.

But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers.

Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.

Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I’m kidding, just look at [the bankrupt city of ] Vallejo.

U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore is leading the charge against government corruption by throwing his support behind the Citizen Power Initiative, a California ballot measure and proposed constitutional amendment that will end the corrupt practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to political causes through public employee unions.  Read the rest of the press release here:

Tustin, CA [December 21, 2009] – U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore this week endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative, a California ballot measure and proposed constitutional amendment that will end the corrupt practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to political causes through public employee unions.

DeVore, who currently serves in the California State Assembly representing the 70th District, is the first prominent Republican candidate to endorse the Citizen Power Initiative. DeVore said, “California’s fiscal crisis will continue unless we can break the political machine. The political alliance created by legislators and the powerful public employee unions who bankroll their campaigns results in bigger government, more spending, and taxpayers are shut out of the process. Nothing will change until we get the government out of the business of collecting union members’ dues that are used for politics.”

The Citizen Power Campaign (www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org) is currently collecting signatures to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot.

“Chuck’s endorsement shows political leadership and political courage,” said Dawn Wildman, an initiative proponent. “Opposing California’s public employee unions paints a target on your back.” She cites a recent example, where a San Diego county firefighters union bankrolled a political campaign to remove an Oceanside Councilman who supported reforming firefighter pensions.

DeVore is a longtime supporter of “paycheck protection” laws aimed at limiting the power of California’s public employee unions. What’s different about the Citizen Power Initiative, DeVore noted, is that while previous attempts focused on getting employees’ permission to use their union dues for politics, this initiative simply takes the government out of the business of collecting dues for politics at all.

DeVore said, “Simply put, the government should not be taking what is essentially taxpayer money and giving it to union bosses for politics. The employee doesn’t even see the money because their dues are automatically deducted from their paychecks, like taxes. The government shouldn’t be involved at all, especially when the union bosses are funding the political campaigns of the same government officials who set their salaries and pensions.”

To read the full text of the initiative and to learn more, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org and click on “The Solution.”

To download petitions and join the Citizen Power Campaign’s online community, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.ning.com.

THE CITIZEN POWER CAMPAIGN
The Citizen Power Campaign combines grassroots taxpayer organizers, retirees, and political veterans. The initiative’s official proponents are Mark Meckler and Dawn Wildman, California’s Tea Party Patriot state coordinators; Larry Sand, retired public school teacher and founder of the California Teacher Empowerment Network; Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa Mayor and Orange County Deputy Sheriff; and Mark Bucher, Orange County attorney and author of the 1998 ‘paycheck protection’ initiative, Proposition 226. The Lincoln Club of Orange County, a group of about 200 business owners and executives who believe in limited government, lower taxes, and the promotion of free enterprise, has been an early supporter and financial contributor to the Citizen Power Campaign.

NO-SHILL GUARANTEE: Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, made freely, and without financial or any incentive other than the pursuit of freedom and limited government.

The Citizen Power Campaign to end public employee union corruption is now officially gathering signatures  to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot.  Campaign leaders expressed pleasant surprise that the title and summary issued by Attorney General Jerry Brown “describes accurately and fairly what the initiative will do”.  Campaign leaders were concerned that Brown (who enjoys a special relationship with these unions) might follow the recent trend of unfairly politicizing initiative titles and summaries.  The Citizen Power Campaign has issued a press release announcing the signature gathering launch.  The Campaign is rumored to be ready to announce some major endorsements.

Campaign leaders have tipped their hat to Attorney General Jerry Brown for issuing a fair title and summary.  The Citizen Power Initiative title and summary are as follows:

MAKES ILLEGAL THE USE OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEE WAGE DEDUCTIONS FOR POLITICAL ACTIVITIES. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

Amends the California Constitution to make it illegal to deduct from wages or earnings of a public employee any amount that will be used for political activities as defined. Prohibits any membership organization that receives public employee wage deductions from using those funds for any political activities, but does not apply to deductions for charitable organizations, health, life or disability insurance, or other purposes directly benefitting the public employee. Authorizes the Legislature and Fair Political Practices Commission to adopt related laws and regulations. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Probably minor state and local government implementation costs, potentially offset in part by revenues from fines and/or fees.

Campaign leaders were surprised because of Brown’s special relationship with the public employee unions targeted by the initiative.  Jerry Brown is the “father” of California’s public employee union corruption problem, having signed the law that authorized these unions 30 years ago.  Brown’s legacy is that the public employee unions now siphon billions of taxpayer dollars out of state services into political slush funds used to drive runaway spending and fight reform.  Today, Californians are concerned about Brown’s relationship with ACORN and his taxpayer-funded public employee unions backers.

Now, the Citizen Power Campaign has begun signature gathering to put the measure on the November 2010 ballot.  They have issued the following press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Patlan, (888) 949-4245
MarkPatlan [at] ReformTaskForce [dot] com

CITIZENS LAUNCH PETITION DRIVE TO QUALIFY INITIATIVE TO STOP POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN CALIFORNIA

Tustin, CA [December 8, 2009] -  Californians this week launched a signature gathering campaign to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot. The Citizen Power Initiative is a constitutional amendment that will end the corrupt practice of public employee unions using members’ dues collected by the government for political donations.

The people behind the Citizen Power Initiative are nearly 1,000 taxpayers who have banded together as the Citizen Power Campaign (UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org).  This group operates under the direction of state and national leaders of the Tea Party Patriots movement, such as Dawn Wildman and Mark Meckler, and seasoned public policy advocates, such as Robert Loewen and Mark Bucher. Loewen is president of the Lincoln Club of Orange County (www.lincolnclub.org), which is providing seed money for the campaign, and Bucher is a veteran of past campaigns to limit the power of public employee unions.

The proponents have until mid-April to render nearly 700,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State.  Tea Party Patriot leader Dawn Wildman reports over 240 county, city, and town coordinators, representing over 10,000 citizen activists, many active in the Tea Party Patriots, who, in the past three weeks, have pledged to collect over 930,000 signatures.

“The Citizen Power Campaign is gaining grassroots momentum quickly,” said Wildman, an initiative proponent and California coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. “People understand this is the most important reform since Proposition 13. While Proposition 13 helped limit tax increases, it did nothing to stop runaway spending. The public employee unions are the driving force behind runaway spending, and the Citizen Power Initiative is the first step to fix this by taking some of the money out of California politics.”

“The Citizen Power Initiative is the only way to truly reform California’s state government,” says Mark Meckler, one of five proponents of the measure. Meckler, who also serves as the California coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, explained, “The problem is the public employee unions have become so powerful in controlling the state’s lawmakers, they’ve created a corrupt political machine. The government should not be in the business of collecting political contributions from government employees. It’s a corrupt, rigged system, and we taxpayers are left holding the bag.”

Furthermore, funneling forced union dues into political causes that a teacher might find objectionable is un-American, said Larry Sand, a retired public school teacher and proponent of the Citizen Power Initiative. “The average teacher pays roughly $1,000 annually in union dues, about 30% of which are used for politics. That means the National Education Association, California Teachers Association and its local affiliates collect about $100 million each year for political purposes. Shouldn’t the decision where to spend that money be left up to the teacher?”

Even worse, public employee unions are spending taxpayer money to block reform. Mark Bucher, who authored Proposition 226 in 1998, said, “We might have prevented or reduced our state budget crisis in 2005 with a series of reforms, but the public employee unions spent more than $148.5 million in essentially taxpayer dollars on political campaigns to defeat them.” Those reforms included common-sense measures such as spending limits and a rainy day fund. Bucher said, “California will never be able to fix its financial problems as long as the public employee unions can use taxpayer dollars defeating even modest reforms.”

Allan Mansoor, mayor of the City of Costa Mesa and an Orange County deputy sheriff, added, “The Citizen Power Initiative will level the playing field. No other special interest group has the power to automatically collect money for politics from someone’s paycheck. Every other interest group has to ask for their political contributions.  Public employee unions can just take them and the employees never even see the money.” Mansoor is also an initiative proponent.

Attorney General Jerry Brown officially approved the initiative language late last week. Ironically, in 1977, then Governor Jerry Brown gave the public employee unions the right to unionize. Since then, public employee unions have spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money to influence politicians and promote campaigns that support the unions’ political agenda. This corrupt system – in which the public employee union negotiator sits across the bargaining table from the politicians they’ve supported – has made politicians accountable to powerful public employee union bosses, rather than voters and taxpayers.

To read the full text of the initiative and to learn more, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org and click on “The Solution.”

To download petitions and join the Citizen Power Campaign’s online community, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.ning.com.

THE CITIZEN POWER CAMPAIGN

The Citizen Power Campaign combines grassroots taxpayer organizers, retirees, and political veterans. The initiative’s official proponents are Mark Meckler and Dawn Wildman, California’s Tea Party Patriot state coordinators; Larry Sand, retired public school teacher and founder of the California Teacher Empowerment Network; Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa Mayor and Orange County Deputy Sheriff; and Mark Bucher, Orange County attorney and author of the 1998 ‘paycheck protection’ initiative, Proposition 226. The Lincoln Club of Orange County, a group of about 200 business owners and executives who believe in limited government, lower taxes, and the promotion of free enterprise, has been an early supporter and financial contributor to the Citizen Power Campaign.

# # #

The public employee unions have corrupted California state government.  They have become the most powerful special interest group in Sacramento.  As a result, California’s state and local employees are the best compensated in the country.  Californians pay ever higher taxes for ever worse services.  Now, taxpayers are fighting back by launching the Citizen Power Campaign to restore taxpayer power and end corruption.  California cannot be fixed without this reform.

The public employee unions have become the most powerful special interest group in Sacramento.  They “spent millions of taxpayer dollars in 2009 to support Proposition 1A last May, which would have increased taxes on the citizens of California by $16 Billion”.  They can do this because they have “special powers” that no other special interest group has – “the power to automatically take hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year out of the paychecks of government workers for “special-interest”politics – without having to ask for it”.  The results speak for themselves.

California’s state and local employees are the best compensated in the country.  Claremont Review of Books Contributing Editor Bill Voegeli points out that “Local government employees make 11.5% more in California than Connecticut, and 21.4% more than those in Massachusetts.  State workers in California make 13.1% more than New York’s and 19.9% more than those in Massachusetts.”

Californians pay ever higher taxes for ever worse services.  Law professor Eugene Volokh has written how Californians pay high taxes for poor services because “California spends far more of its tax dollars on transfer payments to particular groups with political clout” – notably “public employees, public employee pensions, public sector unions”.  Volokh is shocked that (low tax) Texas enjoys better “education, liveability, transportation, quality of life” than California.  This is because “scarce tax dollars in Texas are spent on priorities that have broad appeal”.  California, however, “[provides] increasingly poor services at an ever increasing cost” because “the state’s public sector is not holding up its end of the bargain.”

Now, taxpayers are fighting back by launching the Citizen Power Campaign.  The Citizen Power Campaign has filed an initiative for the November 2010 ballot to end public employee union corruption and restore political power back to its rightful owners – taxpayers and voters. Their initiative will stem the flow of corruption money by prohibiting the use of any portion of state worker’s paychecks for political purposes.  State workers will regain the right to make their own decisions about their political donations.  Public employee unions must ask for political donations – just like everyone else.

California cannot be fixed without this reform.  Without it, these unions will stop needed reform.  Without it, Proposition 13’s Great Wall of Taxpayer Protection may crumble under the endless siege being waged against it by the public employee unions and their political cronies.  Taxpayers must join in this fight because California’s future hangs in the balance.

The Socialist Worker newspaper has endorsed the tax hike agenda being forwarded by the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Budget Project.  Their answer to California’s budget woes is simple – raise taxes on businesses and business property.  Socialist Worker’s Andy Libson (a San Francisco teacher) writes that this is “the only plan that makes sense in a world run by anyone other than crooks and sadists.”

The California Budget Project is a union front that purports to “improve public policies … through independent research, budget and policy analysis”.  The group’s pro-tax Executive Director is Jean Ross, a former researcher for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a large California state worker union.  Ross also sits on the Board of the California Tax Reform Association, another pro-tax union front.

The CTA and California Budget Project have proposed a host of tax hikes on businesses, including raising corporate taxes, removing tax breaks for corporations, raising the top bracket on income taxes, and repealing Proposition 12 to raise property taxes on businesses. Other tax hike proponents have proposed an additional business taxes, the Business Net Receipts Tax (BNRT), a 4 percent tax on gross income, payroll, and interest.

Even as California state worker unions and their allies agitate for tax hikes, other high-tax states worry that tax hikes could backfire.  New York’s tax hikes on the wealthy resulted in tax revenues 20 percent below estimates.  Past experience has shown that “tax the rich” schemes result in short-term increases followed by reduced growth and job losses, as the wealthy take their businesses and capital elsewhere.

The CTA and their allies are undeterred.  “It’s the job of socialists, radicals and anyone else who is sick of giving in to the rich”, says Socialist Worker, “No more concessions, tax the rich.’”

Big labor is fighting reform again, this time against efforts to limit government through a a part-time legislature. Citizens for California Reform are advancing a ballot initiative to return California to a part-time legislature.  The Sacramento Bee reports that Sacramento politicians are fighting back.

Citizens for California Reform (CCR), a non-partisan public interest organization committed to limited and transparent government, are advancing a ballot initiative to return California to a part-time legislature.   CCR President Gabriella Holt, a registered nurse and former Palos Verdes School Board member and L.A. County Probation Commissioner, is spearheading the Citizen Legislature Project.  Their goal is to enact the Citizen Legislature Act, which will limit government and protect taxpayers by forcing the legislature to focus only on critical issues.

Big labor and Sacramento politicians are fighting back, forming their own group, Californians for an Effective Legislature.  The group is chaired by a trio of big government hacks: John Laird (D), Dario Frommer (D), and Bob Naylor (R); and led by Executive Director Steve Maviglio (D).

Republican Bob Naylor is the former chairman of Friends of Abel Maldenado.  (Taxpayers recently targeted Maldenado with a recall effort after he broke ranks with Republicans to vote with Democrats to raise taxes on struggling Californians.)  Naylor is also a lobbyist representing state worker unions.

Democrat John Laird draws a taxpayer-funded salary of $132K for sitting on the California Integrated Waste Management Board, alongside termed-out lawmakers Carole Migden and Sheila Kuehl.  The board has been criticized as a “high-salaried recycling bin for termed-out politicians and political insiders”.  According to Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, this board “Shouldn’t be former legislators [because] these people are not experts… But they’re getting full-time wages while only working part time. ”

Democrat Dario Frommer is a former assistant to recalled Governor Gray Davis.  Frommer was a  member of the leadership team of former Assembly Speaker, Fabian Nunez, serving as Assembly Majority Leader.  (Frommer was reportedly connected to a scandal involving Nunez and VIP, a nonprofit group formed by the late L.A. union boss, Miguel Conteras.  VIP was accused of illegally using union money to make cash donations and staff phone banks for Frommer and other candidates.  VIP was investigated again in 2009 on charges of illegally operating a “slush fund” to benefit local politicians.) As Assembly Leader, Frommer helped create and worsen California’s fiscal crisis by promoting unsustainable spending, burdensome taxes, and regulation that have driven business from California.

Executive Director Steve Maviglio is a seasoned veteran at stopping reform in California.  In 2005, he helped defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s attempted reforms (spending limits, redistricting, union political contributions) in the 2005 Special Election, serving as strategist for the union-funded Alliance for a Better California. Maviglio was Deputy Chief of Staff for Speaker Fabian Nunez, and has served as spokesperson for the California Democratic Party.

“California is a big state with big challenges,” claims this big government/big labor alliance, “Extremists want to further cripple our state legislature’s ability to tackle these problems”  by limiting government through  a part-time legislature.  Of course, the real extremists here are the opponents of reform and limited government.  The bottom line is this: the legislature has been all too effective – at massive spending, at taxing struggling Californians, at feathering their own nests, and driving jobs from California.  That kind of effectiveness Californians don’t need.