SB
202 by Senator Loni Hancock designed to play games with the initiative
process to satisfy public employee unions finally shows itself just 15 hours
before the designated end of the legislative session. The bill states that any
initiative or referendum that qualifies after July 1, 2011 has to appear on a
November General Election ballot.
One argument put forth for the reason the bill exists is
that a larger turn out of voters should make decisions on initiative measures.
Funny that this motivation didn’t arise over the last four of five decades but
only now when some legislators are opposed to what is headed to the ballot by
initiative petitions.
The bill is aimed at a measure that would allow public
employees to choose whether to fund their unions political PACS and prohibit
corporate and union donations to candidates. Similar bills in other states have
led to reduced funding of campaigns by public employee unions and union leaders
don’t want that to happen here.
Ironically, by condensing future initiatives so that they
all appear on the November ballot rather than being split between the primary
and general ballot, the measure will likely damage those initiatives that are
less than well funded. Those measures will get scant attention and will
be lost in the clutter of the multi-million dollars campaigns on the same
ballot. So the "unintended consequence" of this bill will be that
the little guy gets swamped, but the well-funded campaign can cut through the
clutter with a multi-million dollar media and direct mail campaign.
One example of
ballot fatigue that could result from this measure becoming law: There were 7 measures on the California
ballot on Feb. 5, 2008; 2 measures on the June ballot; and 12 on the November
ballot. If they all appeared in November, that ballot would have seen 21
measures.
Voters would get
dizzy and not be able to focus their attention properly on all the measures
when making decisions on how to vote.
In addition, SB 202 would move a measure already passed
and designated for the 2012 ballot and place it on the 2014 ballot. That
legislative constitutional amendment fashioned during the Schwarzenegger
administration would create a rainy day fund and smooth out spending. Some see
this as a spending limit.
With all the rhetoric about over spending in government,
opponents of the measure probably think it would have a better chance of being
defeated in 2014.
It appears from this bill that public union leaders and some
members of the majority party are afraid what voters would say at the polls.