Commentary: The Initiative Road To Terminal Government Gridlock

By Peter Schrag
Sacramento Bee
July 8, 2008

The California legislative process, again locked in a budget stalemate, may be in terminal atrophy. But with 10 initiatives now officially on the November ballot, the political operatives of the fourth branch of government seem to be doing just fine.

The more they succeed, the more California's elected government will be paralyzed.

The November ballot, like an old-fashioned wedding, has something old, something new, something borrowed and maybe even something blue. And, of course, it includes a measure, Proposition 8, the initiative outlawing same-sex marriage, to make sure there'll never be anything but old-fashioned weddings.

But not to worry, there's something for everybody: a couple of multibillion-dollar raids on the treasury for bonds to build and renovate children's hospitals and fund renewable energy programs, another attempt to require notification of parents of minors seeking an abortion, a measure protecting farm animals from inhumane treatment, an anti-gang measure toughening criminal sentencing and a victims-rights proposal.

And then there's the 4,500-word Proposition 11, which would take the decennial redistricting process from the Legislature and hand it to a 14-member "independent citizens commission" of voters who, in a complex set of steps, would be chosen by a panel of auditors. In a concession to the likelihood of big-bucks opposition from California members of Congress, which helped kill the last redistricting reform proposal in 2005, the Legislature would keep control of the congressional redistricting process.

Taking reapportionment out of the hands of the politicians who are most vitally interested in it has always been one of the great hopes of California government reformers, who see it as the key to a Legislature that would be less politically fractured and thus more ready to compromise than the people Californians elect now.

There's probably some validity to the theory. A commission would be more likely to draw more politically competitive districts, which could in turn produce more moderate representatives. But given California's political geography, the possibilities are limited. If constitutional constraints are observed and communities protected, there are only so many districts to be drawn that wouldn't be safely Democratic or Republican as they are now.

California Common Cause, the principal author of the initiative, promises that it will take "redistricting out of the partisan battles of the Legislature." That has it backward. The last reapportionment was an extraordinary model of sweet bipartisan cooperation in which each side protected its turf. There was no battle.

Still, the passage of Proposition 11, which is yet another attempt to depoliticize politics and which is primarily financed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign committee � and which deals with one of his high-priority reforms � couldn't hurt. Its limited reforms would be healthy, and it would also make clear that California's political paralysis has deeper and more complicated roots. That, in turn, might liberate reformers to deal with more fundamental problems.

Not the least of those problems is the accretion of initiatives of the past 30 years, most of which have in one way or another limited the discretion of California's elected government.

Among them: voter-initiated spending formulas and bond issues sold without revenue sources to pay for them; criminal sentencing mandates enacted without consideration of the cost of incarceration or construction of the facilities needed to house inmates; and legislative supermajority requirements for budgets and tax increases that invite political minorities to exact tribute or hamstring government altogether.

It's a long and familiar list � familiar in part for the consistency with which it's neglected. Some of its separate items are inherently worthy, but in being promoted, like this November's renewable energy bonds, as tax-free, they inevitably compound the state's fiscal problems and feed the illusion that nice things can be had for nothing.

It's become a clich� of American politics that government spends irresponsibly, but California voters spend just as irresponsibly, often with the encouragement of politicians like Schwarzenegger who then complain about overspending.

For all its variety, this November's list of initiatives � there's also one legislative bond measure for development of high-speed rail � has one thing in common. None would be on the ballot without deep-pocket funding; in most cases, direct democracy is a game in which only the well-heeled get to play at all.

Some are true and devoted advocates for causes they believe in. Others, like the bonds for children's hospitals, while probably worthy, are funded almost entirely by the organizations or institutions that are the direct beneficiaries. Still others, like the multimillion-dollar campaigns for and against Indian gambling casinos, are almost exclusively battles between powerful gambling interests over which side gets the biggest share of the suckers' dollars.

As the coming battles over the 10 initiatives heat up, they will collectively deliver one major message: that the state's conventional governmental institutions � the Legislature, the courts (as in the recent decision overturning the state's ban on single-sex marriage) and the governor � are incompetent in managing the people's business. And the more initiatives the people pass, the more accurate the message will be.