Initiatives of the damned

Okay, I'm embarrassed, or would be if I did that sort of thing.

I thought I was a week behind in posting here, but obviously I was off - by two weeks!  Foo.

So, to the point:

Today, I had to go to the store, and there was this really sweet, elderly black lady with a few teeth sitting outside the store, hawking initiative petitions.  At first, when she presented her main pitch, I just said no and went on into the store.  When I came out, I smiled and said no again.

Then I had to go back inside, and said no on my way in, but on the way out, I figured maybe I could do something intelligent, so I stopped.

The first petition was for an initiative constitutional amendment (which is usually a VERY BAD IDEA) to force a 2/3 majority vote in the legislature in order to instantiate or raise governmental fees (which is one way the state raises money without raising taxes).  It's bad enough that we've hogtied California with the 2/3 requirement to set tax rates (up or down), but this would be a death knell for any state funding necessities at all.  I failed to point this out to her, but I did say it was a bad idea.

The next one was (oh, foo, I forgot!) another bad idea, as bad as, or worse than that one.

Number three was an initiative to alter the lottery disbursements to increase the amount dedicated to prizes and decrease "the rest."  Now, I'm not a big fan of public education as it is, but starving it is not the solution.  Since the state doesn't even honor its Proposition 98 legal requirements to fund our public education system (which it can't, largely because of petition #1 and the 2/3 majority requirement for tax changes, and our governator's love affair with prisons), cutting even more money out just to enrich the one in 47 billion chance jackpot winners just doesn't seem right.

Number four was the only one I signed.  It was a petition to change the majority requirement for passing a state budget from 2/3 to simple majority.  That happens to be a good idea, and I'm surprised she had it, but I told her it was a good idea and signed it.

Number five was a petition to eliminate the (just-enacted) commission to determine census redistricting.  I pointed out that we just enacted the commission as a solution to the problems of having the legislature do that, and she said we should let the people decide.  I pointed out that the people DID just decide, but she didn't seem to understand that one, which I thought was really weird because she did understand that this would reverse the commissionization of district drawing that we have fought for ten years to get through, but she didn't get that this reversal was a bad idea.

Number six was supposedly a petition to alter the way businesses can reduce their taxes by shifting losses from one year to another.  I couldn't figure out what it would really do from the way it was worded on the petition, and I was running out of time, but I figured this - better not to sign what I don't understand.  I'm no political newbie, but this one was too vague and had insufficient information on what the impact would be, so I said no.

With respect to petition drives for changes to the law, California has been the center of an epidemic of such drives.  Usually they are funded by very rich sources (meaning corporations or groups that have too much money and nothing better to do with it than spend it in ways to make themselves richer and more powerful, usually to the detriment of the rest of us) that do not have our best interests at heart, in mind, or anywhere even close to the horizon.

To top all of this off, yesterday Arnie announced that he was releasing $9.2 million (yeah, Million) to large cities in CA to fight gang violence.

Hello?  Do you know how to read and write, Arnie?

First of all, there's something inherently wrong with the idea of fighting violence.

Secondly, if you really want to reduce gang violence, the proper solution is to give people something better to do than join gangs.  I would strongly suggest a few things like good jobs that pay enough to be worthwhile, in fields that people can actually prosper and enjoy, maybe enhancing our educational system so that it works, including our state universities (and maybe restricting the UC regents from being able to hike tuition and fees to cover their bad investment decisions rather than actually funding the students' education), single-payer universal health care so California's businesses can compete in a global market where every other industrialized nation in the world has this but we don't - radical ideas I know, but someone has to say it....

Moral: READ before you sign.  If you don't understand it or don't like it or it doesn't sound right (or even just sounds fishy), chances are it wasn't mean to do what the petition signature gatherer is told to tell you it does.  They are getting paid per signature, often not a lot, and most of them are fairly desperate people who will do anything for the money, so stereotypically, they cannot be trusted to tell you the truth about what they want you to sign.

That's a long moral, and so is this post.  See you soon!