California referenda – ThisIsCommonSense.org

California voters are said to be in big trouble. You see, they didn’t vote the way their newspapers and politicians told them to vote on the six ballot measures on the May 19th ballot.

The first five measures — a combination of tax-raising and spending shifts to cover a $21 billion budget hole — were defeated by voters by a whopping two-to-one margin.

Only the sixth proposition passed — and it cuts the salaries of legislators and state officials.

The lessons are obvious, but not likely to be learned by the political elite, who now argue that the ballot initiative process should be restricted if not abolished altogether because the people didn’t vote according to their wishes.

Lesson One: Raising taxes isn’t terribly popular even in a blue state. Voters seem to think legislators should find ways to cut back spending without gutting essential services. In every county, and even in very liberal Los Angeles and San Francisco, these ballot measures went down hard.

Lesson Two: It’s good when politicians have to ask us before raising taxes. While some bemoan that voters aren’t minding their governors, I’m of the school that believes that those who govern are supposed to mind the voters.

Golden state voters are fortunate that politicians had to seek their approval to raise taxes — and smart not to have given it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Kent Drum and I step to the beat of different drummers.

At Mother Jones, Mr. Drum decried California’s upcoming May 19th special election, writing, “I loathe the ballot initiative.”

Me? I love the ballot initiative.

Drum is complaining about California’s upcoming vote on Propositions 1A through 1F. For the record, these measures were placed on the ballot by legislators, not initiated by citizens.

Drum is particularly upset that he has to vote on Props 1D and 1E. These two propositions must go to a popular vote because the programs were passed by voters through the initiative process. Legislators want 70 percent of the money voters passed for early childhood development programs and 25 percent of funding for mental health programs to fill their big budget gap. But they can’t snatch those dollars until voters say so.

Says Drum, “I have no idea if [Prop 1E] is a good idea or not, and for a trivial sum like this I’m not about to spend hours poring over ballot arguments.”

The trivial sum to Mr. Drum is $200 million. Who’d get out of bed for a mere $200 million clams, eh?

I would. Of course, I like voting on the actions governments take in our names. I like the idea of citizens being in charge.

I think I’d vote No on every one of these California measures. But I’d like that power: the power to say no.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.