Going Broke: Do-it-yourself lawmaking often a budget buster

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/22/9 | Steve Wiegand

[SmithL]

Voters' distrust of the people they elect has been around as long as voting itself.

But armed with a 98-year-old constitutional weapon, California voters repeatedly have parlayed that distrust into making laws on their own - and greatly complicated the state's budget process.

"There's not a lot of faith in Sacramento or in the process," said Robert Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies and an expert on California's initiative system. "I think the initiative (process) expresses that lack of faith ... but it quite literally adds another layer to finding good solutions."

It's a layer that has thickened considerably in the past 31 years. There have been 127 initiatives on the California ballot since 1912 that had to do directly or indirectly with government finance, according to a Bee analysis.

Of those, 59 were on the ballot in the first 67 years;68 in the past 31.

On top of that, governors and legislators have placed a sizable herd of budget-related measures on the ballot - last May's special election being a prime example.

And, like so many elements of the state's current economic troubles, budgeting by ballot box has its roots in Proposition 13.

[SmithL]

[TommyDale]

The reason Californians use the Referendum is because they have NEVER had a state legislature that did anything!! The people have ALWAYS had to take the lead role.

[SaraJohnson]

They have had a ruling party that does the opposite of what voters want (see the Democrats and Rinos in the Congress) and even with the power, they have no control over tax and spending as proven by the ruling class sinking the State in left wing loonacy.