[outdriving]

I am voting no on this simply because it will serve to take power away from the people and give it to government.

There are certainly abuses like the "bullet train", gambling, pig's rights, etc.

However, no matter how much the people's wisdom may disappoint me, the legislature has proven itself venal as well as lacking wisdom.

Rather than steal popular power, I would like to see an amendment banning paid signature gathering. This would return the process to the grassroots and disenfranchise phony "citizens for" groups funded by special interests.

[peteram]

Well, rather than making it a 60% instead of 51% simple majority (which is how the ballot amendment is currently being proposed), what they out to do is keep it the way it is, but stipulate that any initiative that will cost money to implement must have research attached into it disclosing to voters how much of OUR tax dollars would go to implementing it. How much would OUR taxes increase to build a high-speed rail system. How much more of OUR tax money would be needed to reduce classroom sizes. A stipulation like this would pretty much exclude things like a Marriage Protection mandate. (BTW, I'm in favor of that, too)