Whither California?
I swing between amusement and concern regarding the on-going drama of California's budget crisis. As a percentage of the total state budget, California's 24 billion deficit is smaller than several other states. What makes ours more fun is the lack of legislative wiggle room to effect change. Decades of voter initiatives have set budget mandates for education and social services into the state constitution. It's just plain crazy to modify the state constitution by a simple majority vote. Add to that the requirement of a 2/3 majority to pass a budget and gridlock becomes the norm.
Robert Heinlein's quote becomes ever more applicable here: A perfect democracy, a "warm body" democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction.... [O]nce a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader - the barbarians enter Rome.
The state constitution runs to 110 pages - an obscenity in what should be a document of basic government mechanisms. We're overdue for a constitutional convention to rewrite it. Items that should be in it:
It's telling that those that can afford to leave are doing so. In each of the last five years California has had a net loss of citizens while experiencing continual population growth.
Robert Heinlein's quote becomes ever more applicable here: A perfect democracy, a "warm body" democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction.... [O]nce a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader - the barbarians enter Rome.
The state constitution runs to 110 pages - an obscenity in what should be a document of basic government mechanisms. We're overdue for a constitutional convention to rewrite it. Items that should be in it:
- Initiatives restricted to general election ballots (and not low-turnout primaries).
- Require 2/3 majority in two successive elections to pass constitutional amendments.
- Change budgetary votes to a simple majority but require a 3/5 majority to increase taxes.
- Eliminate baseline budgeting which predisposes government growth.
- Link spending increases to population growth and inflation.
It's telling that those that can afford to leave are doing so. In each of the last five years California has had a net loss of citizens while experiencing continual population growth.