Tonight on Gadfly Radio: Martha with Norby, on Tomorrow’s CA Budget Deadline, Prison for Small-time Pot Growers, Redevelopment, and more

Gadfly Radio Tonight, at 8 PM PT

Live Call in number: 1-818-602-4929

June 14, 2011 Tonight live at 8PM PT: CA Assemblyman Chris Norby R-District 72 and Matt Rexroad, a Sacramento based Republican Consultant with an expertise on Redistricting, particularly in CA.  John Seiler of CalWatchDog will be with us on the program.

We’ll talk with Chris Norby about the looming hard set budget cut off date of June 15, for California lawmakers, where no budget means no pay, not no deferred pay, but NO PAY for the legislators for the time they don’t produce a budget. What does this mean for the taxpayers?   How seriously does this hard set deadline influence the legislators?

June 17th, America’s War on Drugs is 40 years old.  Although in CA we have  adopted a somewhat more tolerant policy toward Marijuana use via Medical Marijuana Laws, we still put people in prison for growing plants for personal consumption.  We’ll ask Chris about his support for AB1017, which would have allowed California prosecutors to decide whether folks caught cultivating marijuana should be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.  The San Francisco Chronicle referred to its primary sponsor as “Uber liberal Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.” The bill failed and Norby is said to have ripped his fellow Republicans for not supporting it.  We’ll ask him why?

Governor Brown is said to still be determined to redact, not reform Redevelopment in CA and using the revenue that now goes to Redevelopment Agencies, to go to pay for local city and county services instead.  Is the budget showdown a High Noon moment for Redevelopment?

We’ll ask Chris about the critical and obfuscated issue of Public Employee Pensions, possible reforms and initiatives being discussed in the Legislature, and what he sees as possible reform initiatives at the State level.

And we’ll welcome Matt Rexroad, political consultant with a formidable grassroots political pedigree and an expert on Redistricting, to discuss the new CA political district maps, what they mean, the issues and possible challenges and changes before they become final.  Yesterday I posted an L.A.Times story on redistricting which cited Matt, and touched on a few of the questions I’ll aks him.  You can call in too, and share with Matt and the rest of us, your questions.

We’ll take your calls, questions and comments on the air at 1-818-602-4929.


About Martha Montelongo

Martha Montelongo, Host of Gadfly Radio with Cal Watch Dog on LATalkRadio.com, Tuesday nights at 8 PM PT. Spends her time between Santa Cruz and So California.