About
Proposition 6 and Proposition 9 are two voter initiatives appearing on the November ballot.
Proposition 6 is 32 pages long and includes over 30 new or increased penalties and over a billion dollars in protected annual spending. Proposition 9 is a 14-page amendment to the state Constitution, which changes the way California manages its prison and parole system. Both, if passed, require a 3/4 vote of the legislature to make any adjustments.
Our prison system today, as the Governor declared, is a “powder keg.” But the authors of Prop. 6 and 9 ignore the emergency and put before voters more of the same: more arbitrary penalties and more prison spending.
The authors say they have bypassed the legislature and put their initiatives before the voters because lawmakers are too slow to act. But when lawmakers vote on a bill, they (or their aides, hopefully) read it.
Few Californians have the time to read nearly 50 pages of complex law. And the Attorney General’s Title and Summary only scratches the surface. The consequence is that, unless we provide every voter a personal legislative aide, many Californians will vote for new laws and new spending that they aren’t even aware they are supporting.
This blog will attempt to act as a voter’s legislative aide: providing information and analysis on the dozens of new laws Props. 6 and 9 hope to pass in one fell swoop.
I’ll be focusing mostly on Prop. 6. Those wishing to learn more about Prop. 9 should turn to the Prison Law Office’s comprehensive summary.
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