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PROPOSITION 98, On the June Ballot
The End of Rent Control
District 3 is many things to many people, but one thing the vast majority of residents have in common is that they pay rent. Roughly eighty percent of the district’s residents cough up a rent check every month, a staggering number, even in a city where renters outnumber homeowners by a margin of 65 to 35 percent.
 So while the November presidential election may be the one with the sex appeal, it would be a mistake to overlook June 3, when Californians go to the polls to vote on a number of state and local issues. None is bigger than state Proposition 98, which if passed, will effectively destroy rent control in California.
The impact on San Francisco, where 180,000 housing units out of a total of 340,000 are protected by rent control, would be catastrophic.
Prop. 98, drafted by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and heavily bankrolled by various land-lord groups, is aimed ostensibly at protecting property owners by restricting the government’s ability to seize private property using eminent domain.
Proponents of the ballot measure point out, rightly, that there is currently little recourse for a property-owner when the state steps in to seize the property, whether in the name of the public good or to turn it over to a private developer.
(Thanks to the Bush Supreme Court’s elimination of Eminent Domain)
But Prop. 98, the bastard child of a similar measure defeated in 2006, isn’t really about eminent domain, which is used infrequently in any case. Prop. 98 is a poorly disguised attempt to get rid of rent control and should be soundly defeated.
Should it pass, Prop 98 won’t immediately obliterate rent control, but will slowly strangle it to death. People living in rent-controlled apartments will still be protected as long as they stay put but as those apartments gradually become vacant, the rent control restrictions will be lifted, and for good.
PROP 98 Hurts Renters (& All of Us) in Other Ways Too
Proposition 98 on the June 2008 Ballot could (also) wipe out important laws and regulations that protect our environment. The proponents of Proposition 98 – dubbed the “Hidden Agenda Scheme” – want voter’s to believe it’s about eminent domain. But a legal analysis by the respected environmental law firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger has found that hidden provisions in this measure would undermine regulations intended to protect and regulate growth and development.
A tenant can be evicted without cause and without the currently required 60-day notice. The measure makes it harder for a tenant to recoup the original rental deposit. It outlaws affordable housing and “inclusionary zoning “requirements.
If passed, Prop. 98 could prohibit important environmental protections, including:
Regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other laws to limit climate change;
Water supply and water quality protections that insure adequate water supply and quality for species protection, such as waterfowl, salmon, and delta fish, or for maintaining the beauty of natural treasures like Lake Tahoe;
Regulations to protect sensitive wetland areas including limiting development on or near wetlands;
Urban limit lines and other growth control measures intended to stop sprawl and uncontrolled development, and to protect open space;
California Environmental Quality Act, defining what cities, counties and public agencies require of developers to mitigate environmental impacts of developments;
Protections of endangered species and their habitats;
Protections of coastal areas, farmland, and ranchland, as well as cultural and historic sites;
“Smart Growth” regulations designed to promote compact, walkable, transit-oriented communities that combine residential and commercial land uses;
Ordinary zoning regulations, such as restrictions on the development of polluting industries, adult businesses, and “big-box” megastores; and
Regulations intended to protect old growth forests by limiting their timber harvests.
End of Article
Apparently the owners have decided to begin to use the ballot box to get what they are no longer willing to twist arms to obtain. This means of course that the same tactics used to” fix” the last two presidential elections has now moved on down to the smaller ballot boxes as well!
It’s also obvious that our Owners believe that Californians really are as dumb as all the late-night talk show hosts point out. That’s why this ‘measure’ was submitted for the state wide ballot – because its sponsors believe those not affected by rent control, will automatically just rubber-stamp this license to pervert everything that they haven’t yet been able to steal – and in that process – they will be able to proscribe new laws that will destroy the delicate balance between affordability and city life: turning California’s cities into nothing more and ever-larger-gated communities for the rich and their very special friends!
Another clear example of why this is happening now has to do with our national Apathy concerning all things political. Since the Dictator stole his first election, followed by 911 and the theft of the second presidential election, compounded by two continuing illegal wars, makes it axiomatic that any public this willfully deaf, dumb and blind, is overripe for anything that the moneyed interests choose to do. That would include stealing even the local and state elections such as the June 3rd Ballot in California.
If you doubt this then just watch this video on the latest murder within the Kennedy family –
a family that has continually stood in the way of these same Owners that are behind the coming changes, and since the Kennedy's couldn’t be bribed: they had to be killed!
www.brasschecktv.com/page/182.html
This needs to stop somewhere; and voting NO throughout California is a great place to start!
Jim Kirwan
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