Posted on 08/26/2011 5:19:42 PM PDT by Steelfish
Democrats Propose Measures To Rein In California Initiative Process Some say the bevy of voter-mandated programs leaves lawmakers hamstrung and that the process is subject to abuse by special interests. Critics say the proposed changes would 'neuter direct democracy.' California is the only state that doesn't allow its Legislature to amend or repeal statutes created by voters.
By Michael J. Mishak, August 26, 2011 Reporting from Sacramento— Democrats in the Legislature are trying to make it harder for Californians to pass their own laws at the ballot box, saying the state's century-old initiative process has been hijacked by the special interests it was created to fight and has perpetuated Sacramento's financial woes.
In the waning weeks of this year's lawmaking session, legislators will push bills to raise filing fees, place new restrictions on signature gatherers and compel greater public disclosure of campaign contributors.
One measure would allow the Legislature to propose changes that would appear on the ballot alongside an initiative even if its sponsor rejected them. Another would give the Legislature the right to amend or repeal initiatives that pass, after four years have gone by.
Such changes would severely weaken what little leverage Republicans and their allies still have in California after last year's election, which solidified Democratic control of the Capitol.
But Democrats say their efforts have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with moderating "direct democracy" gone wild.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I can’t imagine why the Democrats want to do away with the propositions. If one passes they don’t like, they just get it overturned.
Like they’re trying to do with Prop 8, the definition of marriage proposition. And there was another one recently, can’t remember what it was, that they DID get overturned. Does anyone remember what that one was?
Not sure if the legislature legally can do anything to conflict with the peoples referendum. If that was the case, they would have gone after Prop 13 a long time ago.
You're in Arizona so you don't know that the ONLY way to reign in the legislature is by the initiative process here in CA. Democrats are just 2 seats shy of 2/3rd majorities in each chambers and redistricting looks to be giving it to them.
Without the initiative process in CA we would not have outlawed race-based preferences in college admissions, we would not have banned bilingual education in favor of English emersion, we would not have passed one-man-one-woman marriage, we would not have taken control of the run away property tax increases and more.
It's the last hope remaining in CA to get anything fixed that the radicals will not act upon or to stop some of their worst ideas.
It's difficult and very costly but it remains an important firewall against the most egregious actions of an extreme legislature.
The legislature can change the rules of how the initiative process is done, like they're doing here and tried to do last month with a bill that would've greatly increased cost for signature gathering while exempting unions—that was too far even for Brown.
They can't change what has been done via initiative without a further vote of the people or, as we've seen, via the courts.
Not sure that the courts would agree if it appears to be an attempt to stifle the process.
They've also got union thugs (SEIU purple shirts) intimidating gatherers and would-be signers.
We saw in a popular education reform signature gathering effort earlier this year, they undertook a broad campaign of fraud which ultimately sunk the initiative with duplicative and fake signatures.
For CPR, the Lincoln Club is paying a third party to verify each signature immediately before final the submission in order to weed out and detect widespread fraud.
It would be nice if the courts would see it that way but I wouldn’t put my trust in it happening.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.