DISQUS

Lil Spicy · 1 year ago

I voted NO in my state. A yes vote could/would mean the end to my government pension.....amongst other things.

Michael · 1 year ago

You pretty much hit it right on the head. California's referendum system is what brought that state the joys of Prop 13 (the property tax cap). By gutting the tax base, that measure single handedly destroyed what was the best public education system in the nation, in less than one generation.

Oregon passed their notorious Measure 37 eminent domain "reform" law by referendum in 2004. It was basically a license for developers to extort their way out of any regulation by lodging billions of dollars in claims against state and local governments for "takings." It would have destroyed the state's entire regime of land use and environmental regulations, had they not woke up and passed the 2007 Measure 49 to rein it in.

At least in California, once a referendum is passed, the legislature can never do anything to negate it, whether it is a law or a constitutional amendment. And the most insane constitutional amendments go on the ballot year after year after year. It becomes a non-stop war of attrition where the lunatic fringe just keeps throwing out different permutations of the worst possible ideas over and over and over until they finally get lucky -- then there is no way to get rid of them.

It's sort of a race to the bottom in constitutional terms. Good times.