June 2012 Ballot Recommendations
Wow, we actually made it through 2011 without a single special election to push more ballot measures. Not only that, but even with 18 months of pent up ballot insanity, we've only got TWO initiatives to vote on! There are a few measures purposefully waiting in the wings until November when they hope the higher turnout of a general election will increase the likelihood of passage, but it's still looking pretty sparse.
So anyway, here's my take on the two available. I'll link to my general principles, but really these are pretty straightforward.
Prop 28: Yes
I don't like term limits. It's one thing to ensure accountability to the voters, it's another to forcefully retire your most experienced employees just about the time they figure out how to do their jobs well. (And without even the benefit of hiring a newbie at lower salary -- they all earn the same amount.) And anyways, the real effect of term limits isn't to make our legislators accountable to the voters, it's to make them accountable to the lobbyists and campaign fund-raisers, since instead of actually doing their current jobs, our legislators are concentrating on preparing for the next office they'll need to shoot for.
So while I'd love to see term limits shot down entirely, this prop at least makes them more palatable. Individuals can serve in the Legislature for 12 years total, no matter which chamber, rather than the crazy musical chairs game caused by separate limits of 6 years in the Assembly and 8 in the Senate. Call me crazy, but I'd kind of like to put behind us the recent trend of freshman legislators as speakers of the Assembly, because the more senior assemblymen are all busy scrambling for new offices.
Prop 29: No
Sigh. Ballot box budgeting and sin taxes: each a red flag by itself, and this one's got both. Sure, California needs money. But this doesn't actually give any money to the general fund to pay for the many goverment services we already can't afford. Instead most of the money goes to cancer research, a worthy cause but one already quite generously funded by the federal government. If anyone wants to raise tobacco taxes and/or increase funding to tobacco-related disease prevention and research, they should go through the normal channels. This is most definitely NOT an emergency situation that requires an end-run around the legislative process.
So anyway, here's my take on the two available. I'll link to my general principles, but really these are pretty straightforward.
Prop 28: Yes
I don't like term limits. It's one thing to ensure accountability to the voters, it's another to forcefully retire your most experienced employees just about the time they figure out how to do their jobs well. (And without even the benefit of hiring a newbie at lower salary -- they all earn the same amount.) And anyways, the real effect of term limits isn't to make our legislators accountable to the voters, it's to make them accountable to the lobbyists and campaign fund-raisers, since instead of actually doing their current jobs, our legislators are concentrating on preparing for the next office they'll need to shoot for.
So while I'd love to see term limits shot down entirely, this prop at least makes them more palatable. Individuals can serve in the Legislature for 12 years total, no matter which chamber, rather than the crazy musical chairs game caused by separate limits of 6 years in the Assembly and 8 in the Senate. Call me crazy, but I'd kind of like to put behind us the recent trend of freshman legislators as speakers of the Assembly, because the more senior assemblymen are all busy scrambling for new offices.
Prop 29: No
Sigh. Ballot box budgeting and sin taxes: each a red flag by itself, and this one's got both. Sure, California needs money. But this doesn't actually give any money to the general fund to pay for the many goverment services we already can't afford. Instead most of the money goes to cancer research, a worthy cause but one already quite generously funded by the federal government. If anyone wants to raise tobacco taxes and/or increase funding to tobacco-related disease prevention and research, they should go through the normal channels. This is most definitely NOT an emergency situation that requires an end-run around the legislative process.