Features

SACRAMENTO – PG&E Corp., the parent company of bankrupt utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Company, has donated $15,000 to the campaign to extend California’s term limits, state campaign finance records show. 

Proposition 45 has received more than $9 million in contributions by a myriad of special interests, including more than $3 million from the California Democratic Party, according to reports filed with the secretary of state’s office. 

The PG&E contribution puts the company on the same side as California Democrats while many Democratic politicians have shunned utility company contributions. 

PG&E’s contribution is another sign of the influence of special interests trying to dismantle the state’s term-limits law, said Lew Uhler, president of the National Tax Limitation Committee and a Proposition 45 foe. 

Karin Caves, the spokeswoman for the Yes on 45 campaign, said she couldn’t comment on the PG&E donation but said it was made public. The No on 45 campaign, she said, is hiding their contributors. 

The No on 45 campaign has reported more than $100,000 in contributions, mostly from the Americans for Limited Terms, according to reports filed with the secretary of state’s office. 

Renee Parnell, a spokeswoman for the PG&E Corp., said that any contributions the corporation makes comes out of the shareholders fund and not out of rates paid by customers. 

“We believe voters have the right to vote for the person they feel best represents them,” Parnell said. ”(The proposition) gives them the right to petition for a one-time extension and in turn extends the opportunity for choice.” 

Recent polls show the proposition failing to gain the support of a majority of California voters, who passed a term-limits initiative in 1990 to create the current law. 

Proposition 45 wouldn’t repeal term limits but let voters in individual legislative districts sign petitions to extend by one term the limits on their member of the state Assembly or Senate.