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Contributor
Ray
Haynes
Mr.
Haynes is an Assembly member representing Riverside and
Temecula.
He serves on the Appropriations and Budget Committees. [go to
Assembly Member Haynes
website at California Assembly][go to Haynes index]
 Silly
Bills
The
Governor and stupid ideas from the Legislature...
[Ray
Haynes] 5/18/04
This is May
revise week. For those of you who don’t know, May revise
is the last of the Governor’s budget proposals before the Legislature
gets down to the real business of finishing the budget. All of the folks involved
in the process, the Governor, the Legislators, and the special interests, know
how much money the state is going to have to spend (since we all have paid
our taxes), and the Governor is going to put forth his proposal about how to
spend that money.
So—why am I talking about silly bills? Easy—all
budgets begin with a government program, and all government programs
begin with a law. All laws start out as a bill, and if we want
to know how California got in such a mess in its budget, all
we have to do is look at the stupid ideas that Legislators have
proposed over the years. So—if we want to know if anything
has changed, all we have to do is look at some of the stupid
ideas that legislators have proposed this year.
Take for
instance AB 1805 (Levine D-Van Nuys), which would ban “farm raised salmon.” You may ask—what
is wrong with farm raised salmon. Well, according to some of
our environmental friends, farm raised salmon are genetically
different than salmon grown in the wild, and, if those salmon
escape from the farms and get in our rivers, they will wipe out
the wild salmon. How salmon raised on a farm (and bred from wild
salmon) get genetically different from wild salmon is beyond
me, and seems to violate all the laws of genetics, but hey, this
is California—who cares about science!
Actually,
the issue really seems to be that the Bush administration is
about to
issue a ruling that says all farm raised salmon are
to be included in the count of wild salmon when determining whether
or not a species is endangered. This concept is interesting,
but it would destroy the environmentalists’ political agenda
of declaring every inch of river a habitat for endangered salmon,
so their response is to outlaw farm raised salmon. Science is
meaningless when it comes to pursuing a political agenda, it
seems.
Next is
SB 1520 (Burton D-San Francisco), which would outlaw the feeding
of geese in
the way that is necessary to create pate
de foie gras. I have to admit, I am a simple man with simple
culinary tastes—pate de foie gras is not my cup of tea
(so to speak). However, there is only one farm in California
that raises geese for pate de foie gras. He is a Salvadoran refugee
who came to California over 20 years ago to find a life of freedom
and prosperity for his family. He found it, and now the California
Legislature wants to make his business illegal because a couple
of animal rights extremists think that how he raises his geese
is offensive? These geese are somebody’s dinner—what
difference does it make how they are fed?
Next is AB 2732 (Dymally D-Compton), which would declare wiping
rags a toxic substance. I have washed and dried my car many times,
and I have yet to be overcome by wiping rag fumes, or even wiping
rag chemicals. Perhaps my friends in the Legislature will realize
that not every activity in which we engage is dangerous. Wiping
rags are not a serious health hazard, and they do not deserve
the time and attention of this legislature.
There are
other bills that would regulate cell phones, insert feng shui
principles
into the building code, ban smoking in cars,
and investigate Mexican candy imports among many other subjects.
These aren’t necessarily the worst or most expensive bills
making their way through this session, just some of the sillier
ones.
Governor
Schwarzenegger has commented openly on the “silly
bills” in the Legislature. Democrats pleaded “not
guilty” to his charge. I have laid out the evidence. You
decide whether or not the Governor is right. I happen to think
he is. CRO
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