by keptfloatin707
It’s almost proposition season and the last time around left a real bad taste in my mouth.
I live in California where we recently voted yes on a 10 cent gas tax and written into the prop was a increase in vehicle registration. Well most of us knew about the 10 cents per gal of gas tax and were cool with that but not the vehicle registration increase. New car owners are paying upwards of $800 a year now for registration. Which is fucking insane.
On April 6, 2017, the California State Legislature passed the Road Repair and Accountability Act (RRAA) by a two-thirds margin, raising taxes on gasoline by 12¢ per gallon, taxes on diesel by 20¢ per gallon tax, and it raised annual vehicle registration fees from $25-$175.
This wasn’t the only example, AMR a leader in the ambulance industry were able to get a prop to pass with pure lies in their listed summary and there is no laws mandating that campaigns tell the truth in their propaganda. The result was allowing them to not pay for lunch breaks first responders.
In a ploy that could save the company millions of dollars and potentially protect it from ongoing lawsuits, a private ambulance outfit has poured $21,900,786 to date into the statewide campaign to pass Proposition 11, a measure on the November ballot that regulates lunch and rest breaks for people who work in ambulances.
Instead, they say, the proposition is aimed at shielding the Colorado-based American Medical Response Company, known as AMR, from more than $100 million of potential liability in pending and future lawsuits and $100 million in increased costs if AMR has to add employees to cover drivers during their lunch breaks. Even the hefty amount the company has thus far spent on pushing Proposition 11 is dwarfed by what the company would otherwise be on the hook for.
Under Prop. 11, the report concluded, “ambulance companies would avoid” the costs of providing off-duty meal and rest breaks required by state law — costs that would likely be passed on to the counties they serve.
It’s a insult to democracy and the justice system in this country to not demand fair and transparent elections, period.
The fat cat lobbyists and politicians sit back and make buku money off our ignorance and our lack or desire to dig deep read between the lines when taking time to understand what we are voting on. So I encourage everyone here reading this to lead a voice in your community maybe we could actually stop one of the worst on going conspiracies in the USA.
Start petitions and voice your opinions at city council meetings we can build something that gets enough momentum to make laws or Prop’s you are voting on transparent again. (If they ever were.)