Victory! California Voters Reject Two High-Priced Corporate Attempts to Hijack Democracy

By Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet
Posted on June 10, 2010, Printed on June 10, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147158/

On Tuesday voters squarely rejected two corporate-backed measures that would have cost ordinary Californians millions of dollars.

Proposition 16, cleverly disguised as the Taxpayers' Right to Vote Act, was placed on the state ballot as a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote to create public power districts or allow local governments to purchase their own renewable power. In other words, it was a way for electric utility behemoth PG&E to further protect its monopoly. PG&E saw such potential for its bottom-line that it spent $45 million to persuade voters to approve the measure. But 52.5 percent of California voters saw through the language and knocked it down.