Spitzer was a strong supporter of redistricting reform in New York. A press release from the Governor’s office in April includes Spitzer and the Lt. Governor at the time, David Paterson, supporting “A constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission to determine congressional and legislative apportionment. Members of the eleven-member commission will be appointed by… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Rose Report
Pasadena Star-News Endorses Reform
The Pasadena Star-News has an opinion article supporting the Common Cause led reform effort. One section directly counters Dan Walters’ recent article: [The commission] sounds better to us than earlier proposals that always fell back on the idea of a so-called “panel of retired judges” who would do the cartography. Judges, in our experience, tend… Continue Reading
Dan Walters’ Reform Critique
Dan Walters has a piece in the SacBee about the current reform initiative. He clearly sees the need for reform but doesn’t believe the commission is the right way to go about it. The two problems he highlights are 1) the absence of congressional districts and 2) that random commissioners may not have the expertise… Continue Reading
The Sacramento Bee's State Salary Database
Phillip Reese of the Sacramento Bee recently wrote an article, based on publicly available data the paper puts into a salary database, that included nuggets like this: As of February, about 17,500 permanent, full-time state employees made six-figure base salaries about one of every 14. When November 2003 wages are adjusted for inflation, that number… Continue Reading
Local Goverments Allowed to Buy Back Bonds?
From John Hill’s article in the Sacramento Bee: The state Assembly tried to send some relief to local governments reeling from higher interest costs Monday with approval of a bill that allows cities, counties and other bond issuers to buy back their own bonds. *** Markets for two types of municipal bonds have been hit… Continue Reading
National Redistricting News
The Washington Post has an editorial in which they talked to President Bush on the polarization of Congress. The entire story is a good read, but here are a few key points: …members of Congress are ‘worried about taking a rational position’ because they fear being punished in primaries by challengers questioning their ideological purity.… Continue Reading
Dr. Steven Frates on Public Employee Pay Hikes
From Chris Reed’s post over at the American’s Finest Blog entitled “Public employee pay: The urban myth resurfaces“: The idea that market competition requires that public employees must get regular pay hikes and sweetened benefits is an “urban myth,” according to Steve Frates, a senior fellow with the Rose Institute of State and Local Government.… Continue Reading
Douglas M. Johnson on City Council Districts
From Dan Abendschein’s article in the Pasadena Star: “People’s concern about districts is that a council member becomes too focused on their own district and not on the entire city,” said Doug Johnson, a politics fellow at the Rose Institute, and a consultant for a research firm that has helped cities draw up districting plans.… Continue Reading
Arizona’s Rose-like Institute
I noticed this article on a new bill in the Arizona legislature that would create an Arizona institute “to provide access to election information, redistricting and state demographics.” Continue Reading
Republicans Donate to Reform Initiative
The San Jose Mercury News has a story by Steven Harmon on the massive donations by Republican donors to the Voters First initiative campaign: “If they don’t fix that, they’re in trouble,” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University-Sacramento, who has served on… Continue Reading