Half Measures On Initiative Reform

In this morning's LA Times, Bob Stern and Tracy Westen of the Center for Governmental Studies offer some suggestions for reforming California's initiative process. These ideas are drawn from CGS's excellent report on the process. They include providing voters with better information on initiative, expanding the amount of time needed to get measures on the ballot, requiring any measure that establishes a super-majority for something to pass by the same super-majority, and making it possible for initiative sponsors to withdraw an initiative, even after signatures are filed, if a compromise is reached with the legislature. Those are fine ideas, but they are, at root, half-measures that only make minor changes in a deeply flawed process. And they don't respond to the main problem that Stern and Westen identify, particularly the over-use of ballot initiatives as a tool of policy making. In fact, by making it easier to qualify measures for the ballot with a time limit, and making withdrawal easier, Stern and Westen's plan would likely increase the number of initiatives on the ballot. (That number is already going up).

California needs to look at making it harder to circumvent the legislature by initiative. The legislature is increasingly opting out of hard decision-making. This weekend, the outgoing Democratic leader of the state senate suggested that the legislature should punt on the current fiscal crisis and put an array of tax proposals on the ballot. What's amazing is the total silence -- even acceptance -- that greeted this suggestion. If the public is going to rule directly by initiative, why bother with a legislature?

Californians, like all Americans, are guaranteed a representative form of government. Californians need to break the bad habit of initiatives, and think about how to preserve that form of government. But going cold turkey by getting rid of initiatives is politically impossible. That's why I've suggested a different method: making it harder to qualify and pass initiatives, but making it easier to qualify referenda (that is, measures that overrule the legislature). I've outlined my proposal here.