Spreading the disease (LA Times Op Ed - The ballot initiative process)

[pinto]

Author makes a case against the proposition / initiative process in CA. I assume other states have similar discussions on the issue. ~ pinto

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mathews-initiatives-20101010,0,6895198.story

Spreading the disease

Although the nine November ballot initiatives are touted as cures to what ails California, they are actually just the opposite.

By Joe Mathews
October 10, 2010

As bad as things are with state government in California, remember this: There's plenty of opportunity to make things worse.

For evidence, look no further than the nine initiatives on November's ballot. Each measure illustrates some aspect of the state's crisis of governance. And many of the initiatives threaten to deepen it.

This is the peculiar hell of California now: The establishment of even worthwhile policy ideas is risky because they must be constructed on the toxic sand that is the state's governing system.

That system doesn't work because it can't. It is an unholy mix of three irreconcilable parts: an election system designed to produce majorities; a legislative system that requires so many two-thirds votes that it nearly amounts to minority rule; and an inflexible initiative process that permits voters to create a special set of laws outside the checks and balances of legislation and budgets. Though elements of these systems exist in democracies around the world, no other place is so foolish as to combine them.

<snip>

Symptom 1: California tends to set often-flawed legislation in concrete and take big subjects off the table, so they can't be easily amended by our elected representatives.

Symptom 2: It's much easier to change the state Constitution than it is to change the person and party who represent you in the Legislature.

Symptom 3: Californians use the ballot to enact formulas, restrictions and other whips and chains that make balancing the budget nearly impossible.

Joe Mathews is a fellow of the New America Foundation and the coauthor of "California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It."

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Author fleshes out his arguments in the complete Op Ed piece:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mathews-initiatives-20101010,0,6895198.story

[suston96]

1. The most important part of the legislative process is deliberation....

Deliberation regarding the creation and enactment of a law does not exist with the ballot initiative. The vital back and forth of what the proposed legislation is about from ALL sides and not just from the limited audiences of places like talk radio.

In addition, most states have flimsy constitutional checks on the content of proposed legislation. In 1995 the USSC overturned laws passed in a number of states that had limited the terms of members of Congress. http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/U.S._Term_Limits,_Inc._v._Thornton

Those states officers, Attorneys General and Secretaries of State didn't realize that states cannot change the qualifications of US Constitutional officers?

One more thing - ballot initiatives represent special interests. Collecting paid ballot signatures is a thriving business, especially in California. I say, outlaw paying for signatures and the ballot initiative process, at least in California, may very well - ah - wither on the vine.

[msongs]

2. signature gatherers should NOT be paid for that, if they believe in it, get signatures - - >

signature getters are the equivalen of corporate prostitutes paid by the signature and they would sell their own mothers into slavery for enough money per signature. People who believe in the initiative should be out there getting signatures for free. the initiative process is broken beyond repair.