A warning on Initiative 1033 from California

In an article by Peter Schrag about California in 1996 we get this following warning on approving Eyman style measures that put unnecessary restrictions on representative government:

“…ever since the passage of Proposition 13, the mother of all latter-day tax revolts, in June 1978, the state has been locked into a vicious cycle in which each plebiscitary reform, by either mandating or prohibiting certain policies, has sharply reduced the discretion of elected officials. This, in turn, has made it still harder for local and state government to respond to new problems, thus bringing still more pressure for extraordinary ballot measures.”

This process continued and we see the mess it put California in.

You can read the full article here:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=take_the_initiative_please

Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 on the November ballot is proposing a radical restructuring of how Washington State’s 39 counties and 381 cities and the State Government should operate. Eyman is proposing abolishing having state legislators and city councils and county councils make budget decisions above an arbitrary spending level based on this year’s recession budget. He would turn over decision making above the current level to a referendum process where voters would be the only ones to make decisions.

Budget making by referendum costs money because elections cost money. And elections are influenced by campaigning and sound bites and slogans and money. Just how much more complicated do we want to make the process of deciding local budgets and spending?

I -1033 is not a simple measure. This aspect of abolishing local control by cities and counties and deciding where tax revenue should go repeated referendums is a strong reason to vote against Tim Eyman’s I-1033.

Voters need to understand I-1033 proposes radical change in the way cities and counties would function. I-1033 says reducing property taxes for property owners is more important than anything else, than police and fire protection, schools, parks, libraries, health care, our courts, clean drinking water, garbage control, gangs, community centers and on and on.

The only thing any tax dollars raised over this year’s recession spending limit can be spent for is for helping property owners. Forget that renters and seniors and working families that don’t own property will still pay the same amount of taxes under I-1033 as they do today; however they will get no property tax rebate and no new services either. They lose twice.

Welcome to anti-tax and anti-government Tim Eyman’s world. Press escape (vote No) to get back to the real world.