Dan Walters: Government by ballot measure draws courts into Capitol battles

Sacramento Bee ^ | 8/17/5 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 ignited, as has often been observed, a more or less perpetual fiscal crisis in California - a chronic gap between the promises and expectations for state and local spending and the ability of the tax system to generate revenue to meet those expectations.

Proposition 13 also sparked another phenomenon whose effect has been even wider - government by ballot measure. As the Capitol became increasingly polarized and gridlocked, in part because of the aforementioned fiscal conundrum, the purveyors of political causes, whether on the right or left, increasingly turned to the initiative as a tool.

The number and scope of measures over the last 27 years has been truly phenomenal, so much so that the traditional policy apparatus in Sacramento has completely reoriented itself. Politicians and interest groups now routinely use ballot measures to enact policies that they cannot move through the Legislature or use the threat of such measures to bulldoze the Legislature into acting.

The syndrome was illustrated Tuesday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - whose penchant for the initiative has been both his most powerful tool and perhaps his undoing - staged a Capitol news conference to promote legislation that would toughen penalties for sex criminals. Almost offhandedly, the governor said that if lawmakers didn't go along with the bill, a ballot measure would be launched to enact it.

Academicians and those on the losing side of high-stakes measures may decry the initiative's use as a routine political tool, and periodically there are proposals to change the process in some way. But it will certainly continue to be California's major policy venue and, more than likely, will become even more dominant as the traditional governmental policy process becomes increasingly sclerotic.

[Paleo Conservative]

What if the judges overstep their bounds? Should they get capitol punishment?

[pikachu]

All Prop 13 really did was to keep politicians from upping property taxes at will. the lack of controlled spending belongs on the heads of the politicans

[glorgau]

government by ballot measure

Simple reason, the legislature and the executive branches are not carrying out the will of the voters.

[NormsRevenge]

begs the question..

Why do we need a full time legislature if they only deal with what they want to deal with?

and they want a raise after taking the state deeper in debt than ever?

We get the gubamint we pay for? HA!!!

[Amerigomag]

In the sport of volleyball, first the ball is "set up" and then it is "spiked".

This is the "set up" piece from the left. Another attempt by Mr. Walters to change the playing field.

Prop 13 has little to do with California's fiscal crisis other than it limits our ability to provide a social safety net for every citizen of Mexico which apparently concerns Mr. Walters. Prop 13 has little to do with the unabated habits of a cabal of free wheeling spenders in the legislature. Prop 13 was indeed the result of a grass roots revolt against the flamboyance of the legislature when handling taxpayers monies but Prop 13 never was the cause of that revolt, the legislature was.