Posted on 05/08/2005 11:06:18 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The phone rang the other evening just as my wife and I were sitting down to dinner. My wife answered. "It's for you," she said. "It's Arnold." She wasn't kidding. It was indeed the governor, on tape, of course.
The governor was requesting my help to wage war against the special interests whose wrecking ball is demolishing our state fiscal house. He said a petition would arrive soon by mail and by becoming a signatory, and encouraging others to do the same, I would be doing my part to "reform the budget process and bring state spending under control." Sure enough, the envelope arrived two days later.
The initiative process as practiced in our state is certainly a double-edged sword. One sharp edge can be used to slice through the morass of bureaucracy and create legislation that could not or would not be acted upon by our elected representatives. But, if the sword is a bit unwieldy or handled improperly, the other side of the blade may draw blood in areas unintended, ..
--snip--
Arnold's "California Live Within Our Means Act" contains the statement that so-called autopilot spending, if unchecked, will cause the state to become bankrupt. Included in the spending to which he refers is the minimum education funding mandated by Proposition 98, which we, the voters, passed a few years ago. Now we need a new initiative to correct the flaws in a previous initiative. This is not the way to govern.
Government-by-initiative may be popular with populists, but it is ineffective when dealing with complicated issues that involve difficult budget choices. Democracy is about debate and compromise and that is the province of the governor and the Legislature.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
This guy doesn't get it!
The Legislature is the PROBLEM!
Arnoold needs to veto some of the crap they put out!
The goal is noble .. It involves a battle of the state against the saame people who elected them..
We need to change the gerrymandered redistricting 'mechanism' thats in place now, that's for sure, even if just replacing one failed system with another one.. the rest of the necessary reforms will follow more easily once the people will pick who serves them versus the politician choosing his own patch of voters.
'Change' is good.. after all. lol
Rain here today and tomorrow..:-\
And .. if we had responsible people in our state legislature .. we wouldn't NEED TO HAVE INITIATIVES.
The biggest problem is that if the whining legislature doesn't get it's way - then they sick the courts on us and declare our votes were un-Constitutional.
That's how they CANCELLED our initiative on stopping the funding of ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS by our hospitals and state govt welfare funds.
I voted for Arnie. I'm going to give him his chance. We're not going to get any improvement out of the legislature.
Did ya see they are now paying $5.50 PER SIGNATURE on the petitions???? That is hardly grass-roots support. Combine that with multi-million dollar propaganda advertising and anybody can pass anything in this state. It has gotten out of hand, IMO.
(snip)
The good news for Arnold is that polls have two of the initiatives -- changing teacher tenure and having an independent panel redraw legislative districts -- going over reasonably well with voters.
The bad news, DiCamillo said, is that Schwarzenegger's big enchilada -- an initiative to limit the growth in state spending, change the provisions of school-funding Proposition 98 and give the governor power to make cuts if there's a budget deadlock -- appears to be stumbling out of the gate.
Things are so bad, in fact, that its backers -- up against the deadline for a fall special election -- are paying upward of $5.50 for every qualifying signature they get, up from $3 last week.
A recent poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute found that only 43 percent of registered voters surveyed supported the initiative, compared with 37 percent against.
To win a chunk of them would be a good start at taking back control of this state from a runaway socialist monster this state legislature has become.
I look forward to the 2006 General and a chance to toss the c'Rats out .. again.
But we've got to do something to overcome the inertia and turn this ship around. Getting rid of Davis was a start. Now the legislature needs a big, bad spanking.
In the short term, take away their vested interest $$$ and the cancer they create on the CA economy. The long term, hammer the gerrymandered districts. They'll have to go back to working for a living -- for a while at least.
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