I'm a permanent vote-by-mail person so I've been working on my ballot. California does way more direct voting (the Propositions) then I like. First off, I don't know that I really trust the populace at large to make decisions. But the main issue is that everything gets funded the same way - it's a bond! We need a bond for hospitals! We need a bond for high-speed trains! Guess what all these descriptions of these Propositions say? "This does X WITHOUT RAISING TAXES" (and they say it in all caps like that). Well no, it doesn't directly raise taxes but it does institutionalize a debt that somebody has to pay someday. Basically the government of California has become a college freshmen who got three new credit cards and maxed them all by Christmas. It has to stop!
Look, I'm all in favor of high-speed trains and of course I support children's hospitals. What's funny is that California knows how to to solve the problem. Cities and counties can put bond-based propositions on the ballot, but they have to fund the payment of these bonds with either a sales tax or a property tax. So everything is funded, all the time. Oddly this means I don't ever see "tax-free" huge bonds at the county or city level, only at the state level. Ask me if I want to pay an additional hundred bucks on my property taxes and I'll probably say yes. Ask me if I want to just pile more debt into the future and I have to say no. It's just poor fiscal management. Even if we really, really want that high-speed train. (Besides which, we still haven't figured out how to get BART to San Jose or make CalTrain really attractive and usable but now we're going to build trains to LA?)
And let's not even talk about the whole "Wait? Equal rights for gays? Can we make a constiutional amendment to prevent that?" morass. Ironically I don't mind that one as much because it's at least easy to figure out what the not-bigoted stance is and neither side wants to use a huge unfunded bond to create money from thin air. Some of these other ones take some research to handle properly.
Look, I'm all in favor of high-speed trains and of course I support children's hospitals. What's funny is that California knows how to to solve the problem. Cities and counties can put bond-based propositions on the ballot, but they have to fund the payment of these bonds with either a sales tax or a property tax. So everything is funded, all the time. Oddly this means I don't ever see "tax-free" huge bonds at the county or city level, only at the state level. Ask me if I want to pay an additional hundred bucks on my property taxes and I'll probably say yes. Ask me if I want to just pile more debt into the future and I have to say no. It's just poor fiscal management. Even if we really, really want that high-speed train. (Besides which, we still haven't figured out how to get BART to San Jose or make CalTrain really attractive and usable but now we're going to build trains to LA?)
And let's not even talk about the whole "Wait? Equal rights for gays? Can we make a constiutional amendment to prevent that?" morass. Ironically I don't mind that one as much because it's at least easy to figure out what the not-bigoted stance is and neither side wants to use a huge unfunded bond to create money from thin air. Some of these other ones take some research to handle properly.