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California: It's a Zoo! Scott Loftesness laments the anti-business atmosphere in California. I've been thinking about my own gripes over the past few days. My son--now 27--was asking me about California economics and politics. I said there were at least two problems. One that's recently reared its head is that a small minority can initiate the re-election of the Governor only months after s/he was legitimately elected, and without cause. Unless the state constitution is amended, I predict we'll see this occur shortly after every election from now on.
But regarding the economics of the state, I think much of the problem is due to our initiative process. (I have at least a little experience here, having written an initiative a few years ago myself.) As with the recall, anyone with a special interest can talk enough voters into signing a petition and get an initiative on the ballot. Initiatives are proposals for laws that have typically bypassed the state legislature. IWO, they were rejected by the professionals: our elected legislators.
The process goes like this. First, you write the initiative. You give it a catchy title, and include as much hype as possible to obfuscate the real issue. If you're trying to spend money (and most initiatives do) it's important to say something like, "No new taxes will be levied to pay for this!" People like that. Unfortunately, no one ever stops to ask, "Well then, how will we pay for this?"
To get the few required signatures you just hang out in shopping malls. The standard pitch is, "Hey, you don't have to agree with it or even read it. Your signature will just put it on the ballot so people can vote on it."
The California ballot is filled with these initiatives, all packaged to appeal to our passions and weaknesses. Just go down the list: This one's for education, this one's for the environment. That one over there supports firemen, and the next one is for policemen. And look: not a single increase in taxes. Looks like we can get all this for nothing! We'll just borrow the money. Hey--it's just as easy as putting it on our credit cards. What's another municipal bond? No big deal.
So now the state is burdened with a huge municipal bond debt that it can only pay from the general fund or by issuing new bonds. This, in turn, lowers the ratings of California's bonds, and things just get worse and worse. When I grew up in San Francisco, our public schools were #1. Now they're #50. We have some of the highest taxes, yet some of the lowest levels of service. Why the gap? Our debt. And it's just getting worse.
Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2003 9:31:44 PM 
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