Scott's California ballot measure recommendations

[swmartin]

General Principles

1) As a general rule of thumb, ballot measures are a bad idea. They aren't vetted by the normal legislative processes, which allow for compromise and amendment, and they create a "higher level" of statutory law which the Legislature cannot easily amend if changes need to be made. When in doubt, vote no.

2) Ballot-box budgeting has

Comments

[library_lynn]

Thank you for a very insightful analysis of the propositions. I had made my own decisions (most of which coincide with yours), but you really gave me food for thought.

[dustchick]

Just wanted to thank you, Scott, for your dissection of the propositions.

[love3angle]

Hey Scott,
I followed a link from Colleecy to this post and I appreciate your approach to the ballot measures in terms of the proposition process as opposed to an ideological argument in favor or against.

I was trying to explain to a coworker the other day about how many bad props become law because people see a problem that needs fixing but don't bother to ask whether the measure they're voting on is a GOOD way to fix it. Thanks for the well-reasoned layout. :-)

[anonymous]

Thanks, Scott! I can always rely on you for a cogent analysis of legislative material. I will, however, be voting "no" on Proposition 11 - I've done some detailed study of districting reform and I have the distinct sense that this system would be worse than our present system. So then - "no" on everything but Twelve! Great!
- Karl