Found this off the San Jose Mercury News Website
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled his "Year of Reform" special election from his populist playbook, predicting that California voters will support his agenda because they want change in the way state government operates.
Yet several of the measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, including two of Schwarzeneggers', have that "been there, done that" feeling.
So our Governator can't seem to play ball with the legislator. And since he can't play ball, Schwarzenegger will circumvent the legislative process and push his agenda through the initiative process, in order to get everything he wants. What I find ironic is that the changes Schwarzenegger wants to make--allowing retired judges to draw up redistricting plans, or requiring public unions to get permission from its members before using their dues for political purposes--have been placed on the ballots before in California. And the voters have rejected them. Does the Governator really expect his charm and personality will convince voters to pass his initiatives--especially when he's facing fierce opposition with both the Democrats and powerful public employees unions? Once aspect is certain. Schwarzenegger is using the special election as a means to downplay voter turnout. By calling the special election in November, Schwarzenegger is hoping that his personality and his PR machine can generate enough conservative voter turnout, while the timing of the election so quickly in an off-election year will be ignored by the moderates, independents, and general public.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next five months.
Friday, June 17, 2005
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Wissy: Nothing is going to improve with Schwarzenegger's initiatives. In order to raise taxes, the legislature needs a 2/3rds majority vote (of which the Republicans in the legislature will almost certainly block)rather than a simple majority vote. So in order to get around this 2/3rs majority vote, we Californians get all these bond initiatives, created by special interest groups and the legislature, for state services spending on our election ballots of which Californians happily pass, not realizing the increasing debt load the state is now under. And Prop 13 can also be blamed for the state's fiscal woes, since local governments get less money to spend on essential services--such as police, fire, and schools--while whatever money is raised through property taxes seem to go back to the state coffers. It is a complicated, conviluted back-ass-word system of government. So in effect, we Californians want all these services from our government, while we don't want to pay for them.
Will Schwarzenegger's initiatives help our state? I doubt it--in fact, I'd say the if the special election initiatives pass, they're going to cause more harm than good. An obvious question to ask is why is Schwarzenegger pushing for this special election in November--which will cost the state around $80 million--when he can simply put these initiatives on the March 2006 primary elections? Schwarzenegger knows that his initiatives would probably not pass in the March 2006 primary, so he's trying to sneak this under the radar witha special election. These initiatives will certainly give more power to the governator over that of the legislature, give more power to the Republican Party over that of the Democrats (with the redistricting initiative, and the permission slip for union dues to poltical parties), and will probably cause more hatred and rancor both between the two parties, and between the governator and the legislature. We are sinking in a morass of our own making.
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