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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: CA Senator Slams Punitive Traffic Fines to Peers In State Legislature: "Why do we have to be such money grubbbing legislators??!!" Republican State Senator Joel Anderson of Southern California joined Democrats in delivered a scathing bipartisan indictment of California's traffic ticket revenue schemes, during a Public safety Committee hearing last month. The hearing, which until now went largely unnoticed, had mainline Democrats and Republicans sound shockingly like libertarians, criticizing and condemning an out of control corrupt government. The current system of excessive punitive fines and fees is an "unbelievably unjust approach," according to Democratic State Senator Bob Hertzberg. The hearing was on Hertzberg's proposal AB 405, which would give amnesty to millions of Californians who have lost their license after not being ale to afford traffic tickets or for missing court dates for non violent infractions. Senator Anderson, who voted to push the bill through the public safety committee, a necessary precursor before the bill becomes law, said "The problem is that this is impacting everybody, and you know you could be middle class, hard working, have a couple kids, you are barely above living within your means because you took a downside in your job, your home is no longer of the value it used to be, and I see consistently in my district where somebody gets a fixit ticket or they get some other ticket; if they could have fixed the light, they would have fixed the light. But as a result, they lose their job, or they lose their ability to pay other bills because these are so punitive in their nature. It's a horrible way to fund the court system, it's a horrible way to fund all the other issues that we fund with this. I'd like to see this bill expanded and not so narrowly focused. I'd also like to see in perpetuity. This is a limited amnesty. Why do we have to be such money grubbing legislators, that we're not thinking bigger? So my challenge to you, senator, is to push the envelope and let's just reverse some of the funding that we put on the backs of hard working Californians who are trying to make a living, who are trying to do the right thing, and not just focus on the poverty-stricken, because many of these folks are just one step out of poverty and yet we're doing nothing for them, and that is not right because we should be doing this for everyone. The whole act of putting these penalties there, and collecting resources that way is flat out wrong." Senator Mark Leno joined Hertzberg and Anderson in condemning the system after listening to testimony of several victims of traffic ticket nightmare. Leno proclaimed "it should rattle all of us and make us outraged and furious, just the waste of the bureaucracy, the extraordinary injustice. We know there's injustice in the world, but this is unnecessary and we can do something about it." You can watch this outstanding video here. A transcript of the lawmaker's remarks is here. [NOTE: I must include this disclaimer about Senator Joel Anderson, lest you mistakenly draw the conclusion that he's a great guy or some sort of libertarian. He is not. His official Senate bio states: "Senator Anderson authored a landmark piece of legislation in his first year of service in the Assembly. Assembly Bill 221 required the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System to divest from companies that violated federal law by doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This legislation called for the divestment of over $24 billion of our public pensions from the Islamic Republic of Iran - the top exporter of terrorism throughout the world. The bill sparked a national movement which led 28 other states and the United States Congress to introduce similar laws. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced to the world that he would sign AB 221 on the floor of the United Nations during his speech to the General Assembly. AB 221 garnered national and international media coverage in over 300 articles in 13 countries. Media coverage included Time Magazine, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto," BBC, Bloomberg, The National Review, Le Monde (France), and The Jerusalem Post (Israel). ] Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Artisan (#0)
He must be up for re-election >:-)
There are no replies to Comment # 1. End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
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