Home Current Issues California Jobs Initiative submits signatures to qualify for November ballot.
California Jobs Initiative submits signatures to qualify for November ballot. PDF Print E-mail
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Monday, 03 May 2010 12:39

800,000 Petition Signatures Turned In 

In an overwhelming show of support for temporarily suspending AB 32, the California Jobs Initiative today submitted more than 800,000 petition signatures statewide to qualify the measure for the November ballot.  433,971 valid signatures are required to put the measure on the ballot.

Here's what our speakers said today in new conferences throughout the state:
 
Jon Coupal, President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association:
 "The fact that almost twice the number of voters required for qualification signed these petitions sends an unmistakable message: people want to have a say in whether or not the state should be allowed to kill over a million jobs and impose billions of dollars in higher energy and other costs on California families. With 2.2 million already unemployed and the state facing annual budget deficits in excess of $20 billion, these decisions shouldn't be left to unelected bureaucrats."
 
 
Val Liese, Chairwoman, California Trucking Association:
The California Jobs Initiative will protect jobs and save businesses and consumers billions in higher energy costs and other expenses, while preserving our state's tough air and water quality laws. The California Jobs Initiative can make the difference between surviving this recession or going under for many of our members."
 
 
John Kabateck, Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business, California:
"While we support the goals of AB 32, implementation at this time would be a death knell for many small businesses that have been hard hit by the prolonged recession. AB 32 is projected to cost small businesses an average of almost $50,000 per year. The California Jobs Initiative is critically important to prevent even more businesses, jobs and revenues from leaving California and setting our economy back even further."
 
  
Julian Canete, Executive Director California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:
"AB 32's higher energy costs will disproportionately impact small businesses and low income communities - a sector heavily represented among the Hispanic Chambers' membership - and the unemployment rate among Hispanics is significantly higher than the state average. The California Jobs Initiative will help protect those small businesses, those communities and those jobs until the economy improves."
 
 
Bill LaMarr, Executive Director California Small Business Alliance:
"It's time to give voters a choice: do we want to save jobs and rebuild California's economy, or do we want to kill another million jobs and spend billions on programs that will do nothing to reduce global warming?  The California Jobs Initiative will bring desperately needed common sense and fiscal responsibility to the AB 32 implementation process."
 
 
James Duran, Chairman Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the Silicon Valley:
"AB 32 will disproportionately impact small and minority-owned businesses and the families and communities they support by driving up energy and fuel costs. And it will affect 3 million good-paying union jobs in carbon-intensive industries that employ higher percentages of Latino workers as well as the small businesses that provide support products and services to those industries."
 
 
California Air Resources Board AB 32 Scoping Plan:
(Not at news conference, but quoted in news releases) "California acting alone cannot reduce emissions sufficiently to change the course of climate change worldwide."