2003 Cal-bred News

Bob Fox’s Legislative Update

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (June 6, 2003) -- On Thursday, Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh finally brought up AB 923 for a vote on the Assembly floor. After an hour-long, and very emotional debate, the bill passed with a bare majority of 41 ayes to 33 nos.

The final voted tally is below. Every Republican and two Democrats (Barbara Matthews from Tracy and Lois Wolk from Davis) voted no. Four Democrats abstained, including Nicole Parra. At least 25 Republicans spoke against the bill, as did Matthews and Wolk, but the arguments, as good as they were, made no difference.

Mark Wyland, in his presentation, made reference to the loss of the tax exemption on race horse breeding stock and was very effective. Other Republicans that did a good job were George Plescia, Russ Bogh, Lynn Daucher and Kevin McCarthy.

The UFW had actually acknowledged that this bill will not result in health care for farm workers, but the Democrats, including Sarah Reyes, kept referring to their concern for farm workers in their speeches. Several Republicans stated very effectively that the bill will eventually result in a loss of jobs for farm workers if farmers can't make a profit and the tax exemption was a very important issue for many of them if they are to continue in business.

This issue has become a lot bigger than tax exemptions for agriculture. The Republicans repeatedly made reference to the fact that the tax exemptions were part of the budget agreement last year and asked: “How could the Democrats be trusted in the negotiations this year, if they will ‘go back on their word’ so quickly?”

Republicans could very well make AB 923 a pivotal issue for the budget negotiations by holding out on any budget votes until this issue is reconsidered. The bill now goes to the Senate where Minority leader Jim Brulte has already threatened to campaign against any Republican who votes for a tax increase. We are convinced that Brulte and others will consider this bill to be just that, a tax increase.

VOTES - ROLL CALL
MEASURE: AB 923
AUTHOR: Firebaugh
TOPIC: State taxes: health care.
DATE: 06/05/2003
LOCATION: ASM. FLOOR
MOTION: AB 923 Firebaugh Assembly Third Reading

(AYES 41. NOS 34.) (PASS)

AYES
Berg, Bermudez, Calderon, Canciamilla, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn, Corbett, Correa, Diaz, Dymally, Firebaugh, Goldberg, Hancock, Jerome Horton, Jackson, Kehoe, Koretz, Laird, Leno, Levine, Lieber, Liu,
Longville, Lowenthal, Montanez, Mullin, Nakano, Nation, Nunez, Oropeza, Pavley, Reyes, Ridley-Thomas, Salinas, Simitian, Steinberg, Vargas, Yee, Wesson.

NOS
Aghazarian, Bates, Benoit, Bogh, Campbell, Cogdill, Cox, Daucher, Dutton, Garcia, Harman, Haynes, Shirley Horton, Houston, Keene, La Malfa, La Suer, Leslie, Maddox, Maldonado, Matthews, Maze, McCarthy, Mountjoy, Nakanishi, Pacheco, Plescia, Richman, Runner, Samuelian, Spitzer, Strickland, Wolk, Wyland

ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING
Dutra, Frommer, Negrete, McLeod, Parra, Wiggins