Right Back Where I Started From
In the early parts of this decade, a bubble brewing in California burst, tanking the economy. Pundits, grocery store workers, and conservatives called for the Legislature to have the power to save up reserves during boom times to use during bust times. After the second California bubble burst, the Legislature finally offered a ballot measure to give itself that power. The voters yesterday rejected it. Welcome to California.
This is the land where voters have consistently proven themselves incapable of governing by proposition and refuse to allow the professionals to do the governing. Californians believe in the following:
-- More freeways to ease congestion.
-- But not in my backyard (see, South Pas and the 710).
-- More mass transit.
-- But must come with 500,000 space parking lots or else how will people get to the subway? Take a bus?
-- Clean air.
-- But lower registration fees for pollutants like SUVs.
-- No new taxes.
-- More teachers.
-- No new taxes.
-- More cops.
-- No new taxes.
-- Three strikes.
-- No new taxes.
-- No lines at the DMV.
Dear Califonians, I love this state. I think it is the best state and can't imagine why anyone would want to leave after they move here.* Don't you think it's time we stepped out of the way and allowed the Legislature to actually govern? Our ballot measures have tied up the vast majority of the budget in mandatory spending. The only discretionary part left is education. If Sacramento doubles classroom sizes and fires a bunch of teachers, we will only fuel this death-spiral of ignorance.
[Edit: I meant to add the following: "* I say this intentionally to piss off the out-of-staters because it is one of the first themes you get bombarded with when in California."
As long as we're adding thoughts, I almost feel like the state needs a benevolent dictator to guide us through these turbulent times. I really can't think of any historical figure to fit the bill though. The closest one is Octavian/Augustus. Maybe like a Solon to finally undo everything and be our "law giver?" Hmmph.]
This is the land where voters have consistently proven themselves incapable of governing by proposition and refuse to allow the professionals to do the governing. Californians believe in the following:
-- More freeways to ease congestion.
-- But not in my backyard (see, South Pas and the 710).
-- More mass transit.
-- But must come with 500,000 space parking lots or else how will people get to the subway? Take a bus?
-- Clean air.
-- But lower registration fees for pollutants like SUVs.
-- No new taxes.
-- More teachers.
-- No new taxes.
-- More cops.
-- No new taxes.
-- Three strikes.
-- No new taxes.
-- No lines at the DMV.
Dear Califonians, I love this state. I think it is the best state and can't imagine why anyone would want to leave after they move here.* Don't you think it's time we stepped out of the way and allowed the Legislature to actually govern? Our ballot measures have tied up the vast majority of the budget in mandatory spending. The only discretionary part left is education. If Sacramento doubles classroom sizes and fires a bunch of teachers, we will only fuel this death-spiral of ignorance.
[Edit: I meant to add the following: "* I say this intentionally to piss off the out-of-staters because it is one of the first themes you get bombarded with when in California."
As long as we're adding thoughts, I almost feel like the state needs a benevolent dictator to guide us through these turbulent times. I really can't think of any historical figure to fit the bill though. The closest one is Octavian/Augustus. Maybe like a Solon to finally undo everything and be our "law giver?" Hmmph.]
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 9:19 AM
10 Comments:
Just to clarify, I'm pretty sure that K-12 education isn't technically discretionary either via prop 98 (though there is a complex "borrowing" method allowed). It's UC and CSU education that's discretionary.
But the rest of your post is a pretty accurate critique. Sadly, the only way to fix the mess is likely a constitutional convention.
I'm glad to see this comment. As a "new" California, I've boggled to see how inept and inefficient the government is here. I didn't vote yesterday because I've decided I'm against the manner in which California allows this sort of direct democracy. Prop 8 showed that it's money that talks and voters who lose.
I love California in general, and don't plan to leave after law school but after spending so much of my life (non-trad) elsewhere, I really am just amazed that anything ever gets done or built here.
Amen.
For a long time now, I've wondered why we haven't yet voted on a proposition to end the proposition system.
I vote for elective representatives to do this kind of work so that I don't have to. I don't have the time to puzzle through all the propositions and figure out what all the ramifications are. I wish they would just do their job, politics be damned.
The best way to oppose propositions in general is to vote no on all of them...not to abstain.
In general, I agree with that approach McWho. But the reason I take that approach is because I don't like propositions tying up the Legislature's hand when it comes to deciding on a budget. Prop. 1A would have gone a long way to fix that. Unfortunately, the voters disagreed.
Agreed. I voted yes for 1A even though I vote no 99% of the time on props.
The proposition/initiative system was introduced by liberal reformers to break the stranglehold of industrial, mostly Republican, interests. It's still a good control on legislative inaction or indifference. The best way to solve the problem requires two more initiatives: (1) legalization or at least decriminalization of all drugs, thus eliminating most of our need for police and prison expenses, and (2) allow full choice in education, thus simultaneously improving education, advancing the cause of freedom and choice, and eliminating the power of teacher unions.
All of the above will happen only when the people are so desperate they start to ignore media propaganda
part of the problem is that the legislature creates safe election districts for Dems and GOPs alike. it's a semi-cooperative game between them. we have deeply entrenched state legislators who suffer no penalty from taking extreme positions and refusing to compromise.
in an earlier election cycle, schwarzenegger proposed a more neutral commission, using retired judges. we rejected it. some of my fellow democrats told me they'd oppose it because although it was an improvement and although contested elections were good for local democracy, the current climate meant that Dems stood more to lose. so here we are today, with a completely dysfunctional state government.
@ 7:08 - Prop 11 was the Governator's second attempt at that, and it very quietly passed in 2008. Not many noticed though, we were all focused on the much more interesting story of Prop 8. So, come 2011 we will see new State Assembly, Senate, and Board of Equalization lines drawn by a tripartisan (Repubs, Dems, and GDIs) panel. Hopefully this will help the deadlock. While Prop 11 won't change congressional districts, it will require them for the first time to be "compact," whatever that means.
How can you write a post about California's problems without mentioning that even adjusting for inflation and population growth, state spending is up almost 20% compared with four years ago? Why would I vote to give Sacramento more money when they have not shown themselves to be good stewards of our tax money?
Also, the spending cap was pure and utter BS. One, it based spending limits on the last few years, which were crazy boom years that will likely not return anytime soon. Two, the spending limits could be increased if taxes were raised in the future. Looked pretty worthless to me.
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