California's spendy initiatives are legislators' - Daily Democrat Online:
"Legislators love to gripe about how California's wildly popular ballot initiative process ties their hands on the state budget.
But a preliminary analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies shows that the legislators -- not the public -- put on the ballot most of the measures requiring additional funding.
'Most of the ballot-box budgeting has come from you,' Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based think tank, told the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government during a recent hearing in Oakland.
The new data come as legislators and reform activists explore changes in how California governs itself.
The center found that of the 68 ballot measures requiring additional money that voters approved between 1988 and 2009, 51 originated with the Legislature versus 17 with citizens and groups other than lawmakers.
Ballot measures originate with state and elected officials, but nonlawmakers sponsor ballot initiatives."
"Legislators love to gripe about how California's wildly popular ballot initiative process ties their hands on the state budget.
But a preliminary analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies shows that the legislators -- not the public -- put on the ballot most of the measures requiring additional funding.
'Most of the ballot-box budgeting has come from you,' Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based think tank, told the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government during a recent hearing in Oakland.
The new data come as legislators and reform activists explore changes in how California governs itself.
The center found that of the 68 ballot measures requiring additional money that voters approved between 1988 and 2009, 51 originated with the Legislature versus 17 with citizens and groups other than lawmakers.
Ballot measures originate with state and elected officials, but nonlawmakers sponsor ballot initiatives."
