Posted on 01/28/2011 8:18:00 AM PST by SmithL
A state appellate court told lawmakers Thursday to stop writing official ballot language for measures they want voters to pass, a practice the Legislature has used in recent years to cast its proposals in a more favorable light.
The decision by the Sacramento-based 3rd District Court of Appeal would prevent lawmakers from crafting ballot descriptions for tax-hike extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown wants to put before the electorate in June.
Should it stand, the ruling also could erase ballot wording that lawmakers wrote for a water bond and a rainy-day fund measure slated for the 2012 ballot.
Instead, the court said in a unanimous three-judge decision, the state attorney general should craft the official language for the ballot, as occurs for signature-based initiatives.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association filed the suit after lawmakers wrote the ballot label, title and summary for a $9.95 billion High-Speed Rail Authority bond in 2008. The measure, Proposition 1A, passed by 52.7 percent to 47.3 percent.
The court's ruling has no effect on the high-speed rail measure, but the taxpayer group pursued the matter to prevent the practice from continuing.
"This really wasn't a problem until about 10 to 15 years ago, and then it just got more and more brazen," said Jon Coupal, president of the taxpayer group. "Granted, the attorney general can be a political player as well, but at least the attorney general is removed from the (legislative) process."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Of course, the state attorney general is Kamala Harris, a far left wacko that believes in “environmental justice” and that type of crap. So guess what the ballot descriptions will sound like?
“This bond issue will provide $2,000,000,000 to support the people’s revolution and the rights of all progressive peoples to have road improvements made to state roads (by some rich, capitalist, profit-mongering contractor that only by force of law pays it workers anything above slave wages) to be paid back over a period of 30 years.....”
I would think they will be as bad as browns were as AG,
Jerry Brown was the king of confusion, even downright misleading on some ballot measures.
Awesome!
If only they could apply this retroactively.
Then we might be able to undo some of Arnie’s
big-bang-bonds for bike lanes and hiking trails.
Not half as misleading as Fabian Nunez and his buddy The Austrian.
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