When passed by the State Assembly on May 27, AB 826 was a bill to curb beach erosion, but by June 22 it had become a bill to grant Ventura County special treatment under state pension law. That process is known as “gut-and-amend,” an ugly late stage tactic to avoid full scrutiny. Gut-and-amend bills are very hard to stop, particularly when (as in this case) they are co-sponsored by a powerful special interest such as SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Once we learned about the bill we notified legislative allies of our opposition and asked the GFC Network to submit letters.
Late today, we succeeded. Our success is the result of the political muscle GFC has acquired over the last ten years, masterful tactics by Legislative Affairs Director Rick Rivas, 300 letters from the Network, and increasing legislator confidence that GFC is in Sacramento to stay.
The lack of persistent participation by good-government political organizations is how public employee unions and other special interest get laws enacted that crush California schools, services and taxpayers. Reversing that trend takes time and hard work.
