There's been some discussion on this site of the upcoming special election in California.
We all remember the massive budget disaster fight recently in this state. And now the voters of the Golden State are being called upon to bless the final product the legislators came up with by passing 6 statewide ballot initiatives.
I'll make it more clear: We are being asked to pass large ballot measure spending mandates to delay a financial disaster caused largely in part by too many ballot measure spending mandates.
Well, I've had enough and I am voting NO to save the state. Follow me below the fold for why, and what can actually be done.
Oh yeah, and this election will cost the state millions.
I'm just going to start off by saying that yes, I have looked at all of these measures (you are welcome to read up on them more extensively here) , but I am not going to focus on the measures themselves because they really aren't particularly interesting individually and the real story is the general implications of what this special election means. If you take issue on particular measures, I'm happy to discuss them in the comments section.
If you need a more detailed refresher of how we got here, California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass appeared on Rachel Maddow and they both provide an excellent overview of the issue.
Essentially, Proposition 13, passed in 1978, cripples the state's ability to control property taxes. As a result the state relies on income and sales taxes which drop significantly in bad economies (like this one) and severely reduce the state's tax revenue. At the same time, various the legislature and interest groups regularly get propositions on the ballot that create spending mandates. As a result, a significant amount of the budget is pre-allocated and not under the legislature's control. What you get is high required spending with low uncontrollable funding and revenue, and the result is an annual budget crisis that gets worse every year and nearly hamstrung the state in the most recent fight. On top of that the state constitution requires at least a 2/3 vote to raise taxes or pass a budget, but the Republicans control just enough seats to prevent this from happening without making disastrous concessions.
Understandably, the state is almost under constitutional mandate to be run poorly and the legislators, ever the coy politicians, do not wish to be held responsible for this failure so they routinely compromise by putting additional spending issues not passed in the legislature to the voters. We often pass them because we are being told we need to to help the state, for the above stated reasons.
Clearly, facing an ever increasing budget shortfall is unsustainable and we barely made it out this last time. While the legislators were not originally to blame for much of this, they have annually passed on their responsibility to make the major reforms necessary to set the state on the right path, opting for the easier route of passing on more and more of the budget to the voters. This is an unrepublican (small "r") abdication of accountability, and I won't stand for it any more!
I believe that Voting "NO" on all the ballot measures will send a message to the legislature and the governor that we are holding them accountable and that they must address the serious issues that have now become unbearably damaging. They must enact serious reform. Kos has stated his support for Constitutional Reform to take care of this on multiple occasions, and while I agree that would be for the best, I would like to propose 6 first steps to turn this state around:
1. Undo Prop 13.
This is a no-brainer. It blocks the ability to acquire a stable revenue source. CA needs to raise property taxes to 2009 levels and return the ability to manage them to the legislature. Overturning Prop 13 would go a long way down that path.
Mini-update on Prop 13: I should have explained this better. A significant issue here is that people move far more often than businesses or corporations and the Prop 13 restrictions are tied to when you moved in. So while residents will move around and have their taxes adjusted, corporations are still paying property tax levels that are over 30 years old. However, given the implications of higher property taxes, and the fact that this would be difficult to accomplish politically, I could support a repeal of Prop 13 as it applies to corporations and businesses and leave it for residential. However, the inability to manage the state hurts our ability to provide services to those most in need anyways. Reform is going to require effort by everybody, not just the legislature.
2. Undo the 2/3 legislative requirement to pass a budget and raise taxes
Another no-brainer. Democrats won nearly 2/3 it's time they get the ability to run the state as the voters expressed at the ballot box. This will cripple the Republicans' ability to hold the state hostage and allow for sweeping reform to take place ona number of issues otherwise held up by the legislature. We wouldn't even need to make it a >50% requirement, even a 55% or 60% requirement would make a huge difference.
3. Get rid of or reduce the strict legislative term limits
The term limit requirements kick California legislators out of office after just 2 4-year terms in the Senate and 3 2-year terms in the Assembly. This is not enough time to become a strong experienced legislator and build coalitions or expertise. We basically have a ton of freshmen and sophomore legislators with limited experience (not their fault). Either get rid of these limits or make them something reasonable like 5-10 terms instead of 2 or 3.
4. California Single Payer Health Care
Currently a ton of the state budget goes towards managing state run health care and employee pensions. Passing this plan will put that money into one fund that can be funded independently by an income tax (similar to social security) while simultaneously increasing the money in Californians' pockets and reducing the financial strain on the state government.
5. Elect a Democratic Governor
I'll give Arnold Schwarzenegger credit for working with Dems on some stuff, but taken as a whole he is a Republican and he sucks. He has also blocked many attempts at reform (Single Payer bill mentioned above was passed twice by both chambers and then vetoed by Arnold). This is something we can all work on. I'm not going to advocate for any particular candidate, but I do hope they address these issues.
7. Reform the Ballot Measure process
I HATE ballot propositions. They should only come up for serious non-fiscal issues. And even them I am inherently skeptical. I would support one more ballot proposition as long as it (1) increases the financial and signature requirements to get on the ballot; and (2) increases the size of the majority needed to be passed by the voters.
Okay Kossacks, have at it. I'd love some more reform ideas, additional sources of info, or a healthy debate on the merits of voting No/Yes