california budget
While state legislators and special interests continue to call for restrictions on what they call a flawed citizen initiative system, yet another report has come out indicating that California’s budget woes are the fault of the legislature, not the voters and the initiative process. The nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies has found in a preliminary report that legislators outspend the public at the ballot box nearly four-to-one!
As the attacks continue against California’s ballot initiative process, three scholars at the Reason Foundation are injecting some, well, reason into the debate.
An editorial in today’s Sacramento Bee indicates that it is California’s irresponsible lawmakers that are to blame for the state’s budget woes. Critics are often quick to blame Proposition 13, the historic property tax limitation, for budget problems. As Dan Walters points out, property tax revenues have risen 800 percent since the passage of Prop 13.
Last month California voters weighed in on - and largely rejected - a series of ballot measures that lawmakers claimed would fix the state’s budget. Among those rejected was Proposition 1B which would have funneled $7.1 billion to school funding. Even though the plan was rejected by 2/3 of voters, it looks like the state legislature wants to go ahead and do it anyway.
What is wrong with California politics? Is it the politicians, the voters, the balance of power?
Yesterday in TownHall.com Paul Jacob discussed the results of the California ballot measures and tries to answer the question, “Do California politicians have too little power?”. What are your thoughts?
Five of the six budget measures on California’s special election ballot yesterday failed to get enough votes to pass. The measures were pushed by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a fix to the state’s budget woes. Only measure 1F, which prevents state officials from getting pay increases during bad economic times, passed.
59th California District Assemblyman Anthony Adams was handed recall papers at a fundraising event where Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger was in attendance. Adams is targeted because of his vote to increase taxes.
A recent poll indicates that none of the five budget related measures that will appear in a May 19 special election have majority support in southern counties. The only measure polling with voter support is a proposition that will freeze legislators’ salaries in deficit years. That measure enjoys over 80% support.