California Black Media
California Supreme Court Blocks Anti-Tax Measure from Appearing on November Ballot
On June 20, the California Supreme Court decided to prevent placing an anti-tax initiative on the November ballot, ruling in favor of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators. The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act aimed to challenge the increase of taxes in California. The initiative calls for prohibiting the Legislature from raising or introducing new taxes without voter approval.
![Shutterstock photo.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/anti-tax-measure-featured-web.jpg)
By California Black Media
On June 20, the California Supreme Court decided to prevent placing an anti-tax initiative on the November ballot, ruling in favor of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators.
The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act aimed to challenge the increase of taxes in California. The initiative calls for prohibiting the Legislature from raising or introducing new taxes without voter approval.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders sued last year to block the anti-tax measure.
According to the court ruling, Gov. Newsom and legislators petitioned to halt the initiative, arguing that it “is invalid because it attempts to revise the California Constitution via citizen initiative.”
Court documents stated that the petitioners argued that the anti-tax measure, “is invalid because it would seriously impair essential government functions.”
In the court ruling, Justice Goodwin Liu stated that the proposed changes, “would substantially alter our basic plan of government. The proposal cannot be enacted by initiative. It is instead governed by the procedures for revising our Constitution.”
Under current state law, only a supermajority of the Legislature or a constitutional convention can submit proposed revisions to voters for approval.
California labor unions celebrated the court’s decision and celebrated the ruling on the social media platform X.
Tia Orr, executive director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California Chapter, said the ballot measure was harmful.
“The threat to destroy California w/ greed and hubris lost today,” she wrote on the social media platform X, celebrating the High Court’s decision.
“Developers, landlords & corporations: our democracy is not your plaything to rearrange with your checkbook,” Orr added.
The court ordered Secretary of State Shirley Weber to stop any efforts to place the anti-tax measure on the November ballot.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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California Black Media
New California Laws Require High School Classes on Drug Education, Financial Literacy and Ethnic Studies
Last week, California became the 26th state to require high school seniors to pass courses focused on finance literacy, coming behind recently added ethnic studies prerequisite and a health class requirement focused on the dangers of fentanyl use. The senior class of 2031 will be the first group of students to take the mandatory financial literacy course. California school districts are required to implement Assembly Bill 2927, authored by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), at the beginning of the 2027-2028 academic year.
![iStock photo.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ETHNIC1.jpg)
By Bo Tefu
California Black Media
Last week, California became the 26th state to require high school seniors to pass courses focused on finance literacy, coming behind recently added ethnic studies prerequisite and a health class requirement focused on the dangers of fentanyl use.
The senior class of 2031 will be the first group of students to take the mandatory financial literacy course. California school districts are required to implement Assembly Bill 2927, authored by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), at the beginning of the 2027-2028 academic year.
The bill works hand-in-hand with newly approved Assembly Bill 2429, authored by Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego). That law requires students to take health classes that discuss the dangers of fentanyl use and illegal drugs commencing in the 2026-2027 school year.
Both bills require high school seniors to complete the designated coursework during any semester between the ninth and 12th grades. High school students in charter schools are also required to complete the state-mandated coursework. Under this law, local educational agencies will impose the required courses using state-mandated local programs.
McCarty said that the financial literacy classes will prepare students for the future and empower them to make smart money decisions throughout life.
“It’s such an important life skill,” he said. “The stressors that young people face today — especially student loans, renting, buying a house, credit cards all those things are so critically important. And if you fall behind, the consequences have a serious impact later in life.”
Unlike the bill on financial literacy that imposes classes as a graduation requirement, the bill on health education allows school districts to choose if health classes are a graduation prerequisite.
Alvarez said that health education can help address the state’s fentanyl epidemic, specifically among the youth.
“I think it’s important… that we share facts with young people, especially these days as they rely more and more on social media with misinformation,” said Alvarez.
“There’s still no better-trusted source than our schools for students and for families to receive the information that they need in order to make better decisions and better choices,” he continued.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state needs to help prepare young people in a statement backing the bills.
“Saving for the future, making investments, and spending wisely are lifelong skills that young adults need to learn before they start their careers, not after,” the Governor said in statement backing the education bills.
Starting in the 2025-2026 academic year, the state will also require high school seniors to take an additional one-semester course on ethnic studies.
Antonio Ray Harvey
Lawmakers Incensed by ‘Watering Down’ of Language in Child Sex Solicitation Bill
After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children, SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.
![Dr. Stephany Powell, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and current expert on human trafficking survivors, speaks with the media about a bill that would help lock up individuals who buy sex from trafficked children. On Powell's right is Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who co-authored SB 1414 with (not pictured) Sens. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Susan Rubio. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/child-sex-solicitation-bill-featured-web.jpg)
By Antonio Ray Harvey
California Black Media
After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children,
SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.
The legislation has received bipartisan support. However, “critical amendments” were removed, Grove said. She is not satisfied with the language currently in the bill and is pressing members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee to allow key provisions to be restored.
“I am disappointed that they didn’t accept the amendments for all minors to be protected under felony convictions,” Grove said after the committee’s vote.
“I am not going to give up fighting for those 16- and 17-year-olds – and all minors,” Grove stated. “Now, the district attorneys would have to prove two crimes: that they were bought and sold in order to go back to the perpetrator (trafficker) who initiated the whole process.”
SB 1414 made it off the Senate floor with a 36-0 bipartisan vote on May 23. Before the floor vote in the Senate, the Senate Public Safety Committee amended SB 1414, weakening protections for children ages 16 and 17, Grove said.
The committee’s amendments included charging violators who purchase children 15 and under for sex as ‘wobblers’ (crimes that can be punished as a felony or misdemeanor). According to the current language of the bill, solicitation of a 16- and 17-year-old child is only punishable as a misdemeanor. The second amendment to the bill calls for the felony charge to only carry possible jail time — not time in prison.
Grove and her supporters’ other concern is that a third amendment to SB 1414 states that only perpetrators with a previous conviction of buying sex from a child 15 or under, on the second offense and with over a 10-year age gap of the victim, must register as a Tier 1 sex offender.
Dr. Stephany Powell, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who has over 30 years of sexual exploitation and trafficking experience gained through law enforcement, testified in front of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
“First of all, there’s no way in the world that (these amendments) are protecting a 16- or 17-year-old,” said Powell, who now assists victims of human trafficking. “Just by the age alone, they are considered to be a victim of human trafficking. That’s your proof right there.”
Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), chair of the Public Safety Committee and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), told Grove that he supports SB 1414 and commended her efforts to bring “more accountability to the sex trade.”
McCarty said he is willing to make SB 1414 “stronger,” but he is not willing to allow Grove to buck the rules of the Legislature to push her amendments through.
“That’s not on the table. As the rules, you know, we can’t go change that,” McCarty said of Grove’s amendments request.
On June 2, Anne Irwin, the founder and director of Smart Justice California, emailed California Black Media (CBM) a statement responding to SB 1414. Smart Justice sides with the amendments made by the Democrats in the Senate and the Assembly.
“With the recently adopted amendments, SB 1414 now represents a smart policy solution that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all minors,” Irwin stated. “By allowing felony prosecutions for solicitation of 16- and 17-year-olds when there is evidence of human trafficking, lawmakers have further improved the bill – which was originally overly broad and would have had harmful unintended consequences.”
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