FCL NEWSLETTER -- January, 2002

Ballot Measures for March of 2002

The March Primary Ballot will present the voters with six measures, including two general obligation bonds, two amendments to the constitution, one measure that modifies a previously adopted initiative, and one initiative placed on the ballot by petition. Here are the recommendations of the FCL Executive Committee, with analyses by staff. In the one instance where FCL takes no position this year, the committee did not reach unity.

The recession has caused an estimated $12 billion drop in state revenue. Having spent billions of dollars during the last budget year in a largely unsuccessful effort to prevent ncreases in electric rates, policy makers are now scrambling to reduce expenditures. When the problem surfaced last fall, the Governor ordered a Òhiring freezeÓ and suspended a great deal of state spending on authorized projects. For example, some $30 million for an expansion of after-school programs for low-income families that FCL had worked hard to institute is being delayed.

However, 'public safety' spending was generally exempted from the freeze. This produces some strange results: for example, we are told that prison guards who retire could be replaced, but not prison chaplains. There are thousands of guards, but few chaplains ÐÐ less than one for each prison yard. Yet, chaplains play an essential role of reducing stress in institutions. Also, despite recent declines in the prison population, and a scathing Auditor GeneralÕs report exposing financial irregularities in the $5 billion State Corrections budget, the Governor wants to build and staff another new prison near Bakersfield.

The dramatic terror attacks of September 11 are reverberating in the State Capitol. As Congress tries to balance surveillance and civil liberties, state legislators have been considering ways that California can best avert or respond to similar attacks.

At an informational hearing in Sacramento, Attorney General Bill Lockyer described his efforts to manage the problems inherent in coordinating the efforts of thousands of law enforcement officers in hundreds of different agencies, any one of whom may gain information that relates to a potential threat or attack. Some sheriffs and police chiefs are seeking a voter initiative to add a quarter-cent increase in sales tax for six years, to meet the estimated billion dollar annual cost of added security, surveillance, training, and equipment to address terrorist threats.

In addition, the Republican Caucus is beating the drum for additional penalties and more wiretapping authority in cases involving terrorists. They want to make CaliforniaÕs death penalty and wiretapping laws expli-citly applicable to people who use intimidation or coercion to influence or retaliate against government conduct.

Past experience in this area leads us to resist wholesale changes in the law concerning threats and terror. CaliforniaÕs existing statute regarding threatening statements, intended to apply to street gangs, has too frequently been used to convert marital disputes into felony prosecutions. In the Unabomber case, Ted KaczynskiÕs brother might have had second thoughts about turning his brother in to authorities if the likelihood of a death penalty prosecution had been foremost in his mind. Extensive surveillance of the populace is more likely to expose people engaged in petty misdeeds than to prevent an act of terror.

It is important to remember that the most effective bulwark against terrorists is the respect that citizens have for a just government. When people support their society, terrorists are for the most part denied the aid and moral justification they need to disrupt it. Any government that tries to rely too greatly on surveillance, imprisonment, and reprisals can undermine the public support that is its most important asset. |

Ira Saletan, Development &Outreach Coordinator

Ira Saletan comes to FCL with 20 years of service in community-based and public-interest organizations, as well as private firms and public agencies.

Ira has coordinated development and outreach initiatives on housing, public health, social services, transportation, education, and cross- cultural training. He has worked with African-American, Latino, Native American and Southeast Asian (Hmong and other) communities, and has been an environmental planner and a substitute teacher.

In 1976, he left Amherst College in Massachusetts to walk and organize in the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice. Ira later worked with American Friends Service Committee in Connecticut and as an organizer in Indiana before coming to California. He earned his masterÕs degree in City and Regional Planning from U.C. Berkeley, and was a prison correspondent and visitor during this time.

Ira is a native of New York and has lived in the Sacramento area since 1984. He grew up in a Jewish family, was an active Unitarian Universalist, and has attended Friends Meetings in Massachusetts and California. He practices yoga, swims, is a sports fan and also a student mentor.

Stephen Myers, Newsletter Editor

Stephen Myers continues an almost decade-long involvement with Friends organizations with his new position at FCL. This fact is especially impressive considering he is only 25 years old.

For Stephen, who was raised in a pastoral meeting in Indiana, Westtown School was an eye-opening experience. It was the first time he began to learn about QuakersÕ leadership in struggles for peace and social justice, which began a profound transfor-mation in how he thought about the world.

You can have each issue of the FCL Newsletter mailed to your home or place of business, simply by mailing a request to our office, together with a check for $20 ($7 low-income). Bundle subscriptions to a meeting, congregation, or other group may also be arranged at a cost of $75.

Friends Committee on Legislation 717 K St., Suite 500-B, Sacramento, CA 95814-3408 (916) 443-3734

This page was last updated December 20, 2001; it is supported by Peacetree.