Attorney General Lets Down 14 Million Tenants: Refuses to Include “Rent Control” in Title of Prop 98

The only way to ensure this will fail is to support the other one, 99, or the vote will split and it will win. We're trapped on this one.

Friday, February 22, 2008
Sierra Club California opposes Proposition 98, supports Prop 99
http://sierraclubca.blogspot.com/2008/02/sierra-club-california-opposes.html

OPPOSE 98 -- While prop 98 is ostensibly about eminent domain, the fine print threatens local land use planning and environmental protections and was deliberately crafted to challenge affordable housing policies. This measure comes from many of the same wealthy special interests who proposed the defeated Prop 90 in 2006, and rejecting Prop 98 is a top priority for Sierra Club California this June.

SUPPORT 99 -- Prop 99 is a real eminent domain reform measure intended to constitutionally protect home owners without the hidden agendas and adverse consequences of prop 98. Prop 99 will prohibit government from using eminent domain to take a home to transfer to a private developer. It is supported by a broad coalition of homeowners, environmentalists, labor, business, cities and counties who want straightforward eminent domain reform that responds to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo decision.

If as you say the measure lets rents go to market rate when someone vacates a rent controlled apartment or mobile home space, this will ruin the equity that many people have in their coaches in rent controlled mobile home parks. The way that equity/value is maintained in such parks is to gaurantee that the rent will not increase more than the CPI per year even when the coach changes hands. Paying $900+ per month for space rent plus $500 per month for a mortgage is a bit of a change from the current situation in rent controlled parks. By the beach, the rents could be substantially higher. Although this figure is close to what the total payments are for $250/month controlled rent + $1000/month mortgage on a rent controlled coach, there will be no way for people who want to move after prop 98 passes to recover their investment if they purchased their home before prop 98. In this situation, wealth is transferred from the lower middle class mobile home owner to the mobile home park owner.

Lifelong Democrat Jerry Brown, whose father was the Democratic governor who sent the troops against the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley in 1964 and who murdered Caryl Chessman as a political football in 1960, is busy currying favor with his class, the ruling capitalist class, which the Democrats and Republicans represent equally, by attacking rent control and by prosecuting the San Francisco 8 on false charges costing the City of San Francisco millions of dollars. We have no vacancy control in California, despite the Democratic majority in the California Legislature, and there was a Democratic majority in the State Legislature with Democrat Gray Davis was governor and nothing was done about vacancy control either, so rents go sky high when someone moves out. However, we have rent control in many places, including San Francisco, which kicks in after 1 year of residency in San Francisco. The eminent domain issue that is the subject of Prop 99 should have been taken care of by the State Legislature so we would not have to spend our hard-earned dollars as workingclass renters to keep a roof over our heads. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR 14 MILLION PEOPLE TO GO SO WE HAD BETTER DEFEAT PROPOSITION 98. The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA and THE LOS ANGELES METROPOLITAN AREA ARE CRUCIAL to DEFEATING PROPOSITION 98.

Please remember to vote in the June 3 election. If you vote absentee, you can vote starting May 5, 2008. YOU CAN REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE JUNE ELECTION between now and May 19, 2008. THIS IS A STATEWIDE ELECTION, SO CONTACT YOUR COUNTY REGISTRAR TO VOTE. For San Francisco, go to the basement of City Hall on the Van Ness side to register to vote, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sign up to be a permanent absentee (vote by mail) voter so you never forget to vote, or do it by mail at:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/elections_index.asp?id=60515
For all counties, go to:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

In San Francisco, you can vote Yes on F and No on G for affordable housing in Bayview. See
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/elections/candidates/Jun2008_QualifiedLocalBallotMeasuresUnofficialTitles.pdf
In California, you can vote No on 98 and Yes on 99 to save rent control
See
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/elections/candidates/Jun2008_QualifiedStateMeasures.pdf
and
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm#2008SPrimary

Nobody should be surprised that "Moon Beam" left the words
"rent control" off the Prop. 98 title. He's bankrolled by the
real estate lobby and wants to return to the Governor's
Mansion in 2011.

If renters make it to the polls, 98 should be defeated anyway.