California's bail bond industry wasted no time launching a referendum challenge to the new bail bill reported in Kym's post earlier today, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Under Article II § 9 of the California Constitution, opponents of the bill have 90 days to gather signatures equal to 5% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election, about 366,000.
In the battles over the earlier initiatives to reduce a swath of felonies to misdemeanors (Prop. 47) and to give the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation carte blanche to give get-out-of-prison early credit (Prop. 57), the supporters faced only weakly funded opposition. The people never really knew the implications of what they were voting on. This time, having legislated the complete destruction of an entire industry, the people who spent their careers building those businesses will dig deep both to qualify the referendum and to promote it. The Bee reports:
David Quintana, a lobbyist for the California Bail Agents Association, said he believes the referendum will be "overwhelmingly successful," because Californians are tired of the stream of recent laws rolling back tough criminal statutes and sentencing laws to reduce the state's overcrowded prison population.
"The public is going to rise up and support stronger public safety," he said.
If they gather the signatures in time, the effective date of the bill will be postponed until November 2020, unless the Governor calls a special election. If he does that, the Prop. 47/57 fix initiative will also get an earlier vote. (See Art. II § 8(c).) Stay tuned.
Would be interested in your views on the substance, Kent. Do you generally favor risk assessments over $$ in bail decision-making? I know many on the left dislike how the risk determination is structured under the new law. Do you share their concerns?
I expect we will have a post on the substance tomorrow.