Citizens in Charge

The Economist got it all wrong about California’s initiative process:

To the Editor,

Once again, The Economist lays blame for California’s budget problems at the foot of the state’s ballot initiative process [“Burn the wagons,” April 20] without offering even a scintilla of evidence for such an assertion.

The facts paint a much different picture. A report by the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies found that the legislature is largely responsible for any “ballot box budgeting,” not voter initiatives. More than 80 percent of measures to spend tax money from 1998 to 2009 were placed on the ballot by legislators.

In fact, the main source of voter-mandated spending is embodied in Proposition 98, a 1988 initiative that mandates a minimum level of state spending on K-12 education. With or without passage of this measure, legislators are unlikely to slash popular education spending. Moreover, Prop 98 contains a specific provision permitting the legislature to suspend its mandate.

That’s why even the Legislative Analyst’s Office rejected the argument that “voter-approved propositions” have made the budget “unmanageable.” A 2009 report declared, “In reality, however, the Legislature remains in control of the vast majority of state spending,” and concluded, “Such decisions are often more restricted by the lack of political consensus as opposed to any structural budgetary constraint.”

California voters may be responsible for the state’s fiscal troubles by electing irresponsible representatives, but not through the initiative process. Shame on The Economist for its repeated broadsides against direct democracy devoid of these basic facts.

Sincerely,

Paul Jacob