Dave Cogdill

This blog took a shot last week at senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill yesterday for the hypocrisy of going after ballot initiatives as part of reform proposals. But Cogdill and his Assembly counterpart Mike Villines at least are offering a number of reform ideas. It's a long, piecemeal rollout, as they tackle contracting, education, and budget reform. Given the power of labor and the fact they're the minority party, few of these ideas have much chance of passing. But it's good that they're raising issues--California desperately needs a serious, wide-ranging debate about the structure of its government, its budget system, and its tax system. Here's the latest set of proposals. Of these ideas, the ones that have the best chance of making it are the ones calling for more government transparency (requiring public agencies to publish their expenditures on the Internet in a searchable form), the elimination of some state mandates to local school districts in bad budget times, and the speeding up of voter-approved infrastructure projects.

Complaints about the initiative process often have little to do with the process and a lot to do with the content of the initiative in question. Democratic legislators who rail against the process end up sponsoring initiatives to fund pet causes. And Republicans -- particularly those in California -- often talk about the initiative as a sacred expression of the people's will (especially Prop 13, the ultimate holy sacrament). Except when it produces policies they don't like.

The latest example of this comes from Dave Cogdill, the new Republican leader in the California State Senate. This week Cogdill proposed to balance the budget by raiding three accounts set up by ballot initiative: the county commissions for children established by Prop 10; the mental health services funds set aside by Prop 63, and the transportation fund established by Prop 42.

On the natural, each of these proposals is worth considering. Ballot box budgeting has its problems, and in a budget crisis, everything ought to be on the table. But the hypocrisy is nauseating. If someone suggested suspending Prop. 13 property tax limits, Cogdill and Republicans would be denouncing the notion. Next, Democratic legislators, who have been no friends of the initiative, predictably will rise to the defense of the people's will. The wailing you hear is California crying for leadership.