A Guide to the Biggest Primary Day of the Year (So Far)

Today is an election day. I hope you remembered to get out and vote! Voters from California to South Carolina will choose which candidates will be on the general election ballot in a series of primaries today. What do you need to know on a state to state basis for the election? The New York Times put together a guide of sorts. If you are in California, like me, here is the scoop:

CALIFORNIA: Republicans will select nominees for Senate and governor, with two former business executives poised to become the party’s standard bearers in the fall. Meg Whitman, in the governor’s race, she is the former chief executive of eBay and billionaire, and has invested a small share of her personal fortune in her race against Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, who put up $24 million of his own money into his primary campaign.

It’s a back-to-the-future race. The winner will challenge Jerry Brown, the state’s attorney general, who was first elected governor of California three decades ago.

In the Senate primary, Carly Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, is running against Tom Campbell, a former congressman, and Chuck DeVore, whose candidacy has drawn the backing of many Tea Party activists. The winner will face Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, in the fall.

Representative Jane Harman, who represents the state’s 36th District, in Southern California, will find whether she, too, is swept aside by the anti-incumbent sentiment. Ms. Harman, a centrist Democrat, is facing Marcy Winograd, a leading figure in the progressive movement in Los Angeles.

Get the rest of the scoop here.

People Are Talking About California’s Proposition 16

Proposition 16 is in the news recently because many people are feeling very adamant about a NO vote on the initiative that seems to benefit the utility company giant, PG and E. Santa Barbara’s www.independent.com states that Proposition 16 gives PG and E a monopoly on electricity.

• “Prop 16 would change the California Constitution to require two-thirds supermajority vote before any municipality (city, county, district, etc.) could form its own nonprofit public utility, expand an existing publicly owned utility, or buy clean, renewable energy for the community at wholesale prices.”

The California initiative process was created in the early 1900s to empower citizens to enact legislation. Is big business using the initiative process for their gain? I took the liberty of looking up Proposition 16 in the California voter guide to get a more accurate look at both sides of the issue.

PG and E is said to have written the initiative and is the only one funding the campaign. PG and E is trying to keep its market share by force. Many people feel there are better ways to stay ahead: competitive prices and fulfilling its commitment to clean, renewable energy.

Some are worried that this change would prevent community choice in electricity. With community choice, a little-known option, a municipality could choose whether they wanted to power their homes with wind, solar, biomass, or even wave energy. So if your town wanted to use wind power, for instance, and take control over their impact on pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and prices, they could opt-out of the investor-owned utility company. Also, customers in your town could opt-out of the community choice and stay with the utility company, it’s their choice. If Prop. 16 passes, it means local governments would be required to receive two-thirds voter approval before they could start up electricity services or expand electricity service into a new territory. Some believe this puts local government spending in the hands of the taxpayer.

Coal is still being used as the primary electricity generator in California. See: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=California_and_coal. Power companies aren’t meeting their goals for renewable energy statewide. And now some taxpayers feel that PG and E is trying to taking away their choice.

As with any proposition, voters need to be fully informed and the three sources below are a good place to start:

http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/16/
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/jun/03/no-prop-16/
http://earth2tech.com/2010/06/03/opinion-it-leaders-need-to-speak-out-against-prop-16/

House to Vote on Tax Bill as Net Cost Drops to $60.5 Billion

From the Wall Street Journal:

The latest version of House legislation to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits would add $60.5 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

The House took the first step toward passing the package. On a 221-199 vote, the House approved a rule setting up two votes later Friday. The House will vote on the jobless and tax package, then vote separately on a provision to postpone scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

The new cost estimate from CBO appeared to give Democrats the needed confidence to move ahead, after lacking the votes all week.

The estimate reflects changes House leaders made to the package including eliminating spending programs created by the 2009 stimulus bill, expanded Cobra health insurance subsidies and increased federal Medicaid payments to states.

Those and other changes shaved the net cost of the package to $60.5 billion from $140 billion earlier in the week.

The total cost of spending and tax cuts in the package is roughly $116 billion. About $56 billion of that is offset by targeted tax increases on business, including the fund manager tax rate increase and changes in the way overseas income of U.S.-based multinationals is taxed.

House Votes for Faster Tax Breaks for Haiti Gifts

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to approve a bill allowing taxpayers to write-off donations made to Haitian relief efforts on their 2009 tax returns. According to this article from the Washington Post, the Senate is expected to act quickly on the popular legislation.

Under current law, donors would have to wait until they file their 2010 returns next year to take the deductions. But the newly advanced bill would allow donations made by the end of February to be deducted from 2009 returns.

The bill passed on a voice vote with no opposition. Quick Senate action is expected. A similar law was enacted in 2005 for donations to victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004.

"It's a simple gesture but it will encourage giving in this challenging economy," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

Last week's quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission. A powerful aftershock caused even more damage Wednesday.