it wasn’t voters who decided to increase the number of state government and public school jobs paid for by taxpayers from 719,000 in 1997 to 895,000 in 2007 ”“ an additional 176,000 employees. That translates into 48 added jobs a day every day for 10 years.
It wasn’t voters who changed laws to allow public employees to retire with extravagant pensions equal to 90 percent of their final pay ”“ without resolving how to pay the eventual tab.
It wasn’t voters who approved a 37 percent pay hike for prison guards and bizarre, unprecedented concessions to the guards that gave them a management say in Corrections Department decisions ”“ helping make California prisons more than twice as expensive per-inmate than Florida’s.
It wasn’t voters who refused to look at ways to relieve costly overcrowding at prisons, even as states such as New York enjoyed great success with reform measures.
In a democracy are we all absolved from responsibility for good governance? I may be misreading the essay, but I believe that’s what the author is saying – citizens get a pass, it’s got to be someone else’s fault.
I think what the author is doing is refuting the contention popular in the California press that the various and sundry ballot propositions that have passed over the decades are at the root of California’s fiscal disaster. As he aptly points out, that idea is deeply in error.
However, it is voters who have kept on electing these spendthrift legislators, so voters do have some culpability for California’s mess.
Everyone knows that propositions in California aren’t worth spit. The California SC runs California.
And now there are calls for a ‘constitutional convention’ for California to stop the SC from ruling the state, especially as the SC keeps invalidating constitutional amendments voted by the people! However, many are worried that the action may do more harm than good.
If the California S.C. keeps invalidating constitutional amendments, the recourse is to impeach them and remove them from office.
The problem with prying those rotten barnacles from the legislature is that they are so deeply entrenched, and have so much support from special interests, that the average citizen’s vote basically means nada. As a voter, I do what I can. Unfortunately, it’s about like piddling (to use a euphemism) into a Santa Ana wind. There is NO ONE in Sacramento for whom I have voted. I think the vote this week was a mass expression of the anger of the disenfranchised.
#7, if you can vote you are certainly not disenfranchised. As one who lives in a similarly disfunctional East Coast state, I know there is nothing perfect about representative democracy and that lobbiests often wield too-great influence. But, I also know that as a citizen I am also a “special interest group” and that I also have a say in government. As the saying goes, if you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.
#8. Thanks for the advice. It would never have occurred to me on my own.
Hey, this is why the tea parties are being organized — once the ‘representatives’ get into office, they forget WHO sent them there. The Tea Parties remind them of the WHO, The WHY and the WHY NOT.
Hopefully, more credible candidates for both parties will emerge from the movement. But if they do, don’t expect friendly media coverage.