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Fresh Ideas from Sacramento Lawmakers
By Phil Lee, PAC/HUPAC Chair
GGAHU Board members were among the many citizens who attended a Town Hall meeting at the Community Hall of the Lafayette Library on Feb. 3rd. This meeting was organized by these two local lawmakers to share with the public their latest efforts in Sacramento, and to solicit feedback.
Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, an attorney and Republican, won her seat in 2014. State Senator Steve Glazer, a former Orinda Mayor and Democrat, won his Senate seat (which was vacated by Mark DeSaulnier) in a 2015 mid-term run-off election. With the help of the CAHU PAC our association was an early supporter of Assemblywoman Baker and Senator Glazer from the beginning of their campaigns for office in 2014.
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| Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (San Ramon) and Senator Steve Glazer (Walnut Creek) at the Lafayette Town Hall. |
Although from different political parties Baker and Glazer agree on many issues such as opposition to Jerry Brown's bullet train, support for banning BART strikes and recognition that the State must address billions of dollars of pension debt. They also support transparency in local government collective bargaining.
Both lawmakers stress "clean, transparent government" and lead by example by waiving "per diem" awards which many Sacramento lawmakers take for granted and pocket at taxpayer's expense.
Every year, Sacramento lawmakers crank out thousands of new bills, many of which are voted into law. After only 9 months in office, Senator Glazer reports that he has already signed over 1,300 bills.
GGAHU's legislative advocates, Julianne Broyles and Michael Belote, are very familiar with this volume of legislation. Each year they laboriously read and analyze each one of these bills to pick out those that may be harmful to the health insurance market, and to classify and prioritize them for needed action.
Our support for these lawmakers allows our association to inform them of the details and consequences, good or bad, of some of the most important or damaging bills. They can sometimes even be helpful to us when we need sponsors for badly needed corrections to existing laws.
Together, Glazer and Baker form a potent, bipartisan pair that can help change Sacramento politics. They set an example of the power of finding common ground and working together. GGAHU members who make donations to the CAHU PAC can feel good about supporting these two outstanding legislators.
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