Is Missouri going the way of California?
Many of that state’s ongoing crises – both the financial ones and the ones related to how ungovernable that state has become – stem from an initiative petition process that long ago spun out of control. Got a cause? Get the voters to earmark some money for it. The record shows it’s pretty easy.
The trouble is the voters don’t have to square income with outgo. That’s what we elect governors and legislators to do. Every set-aside – $1 or $1 billion – ties the hands of those whose job is to balance the budget. That gets tricky when you consider that many of the most important government functions – patrol the highways, lock up the bad guys, try to keep consumers from getting ripped off – are dull and routine and have no ready political constituency.
That’s how Californians have slowly warped their budget over the years. Now, in a bad economy, it’s time to cut, cut, cut, but remember that A, B and C are off limits. Good luck with that.
Missouri isn’t that bad off, but frivolous issues keep getting on the ballot. In November, we’ll vote on whether to bar real estate transfer taxes. Now that one is easy. Voters statewide will say no to just about anything with the word “tax” in it, no matter the merit, the rate or the benefit of whatever the tax would pay for.
But we’ll not get a debate on any merits or shortcomings of such a tax because there is no real-estate transfer tax in this state, and none is contemplated. This is simply one industry – real estate – putting its fears on the ballot. No, this isn’t a California-style special-interest set-aside, but this state is beginning to drift in that direction. We have voted on what marriage is and whether government paperwork has to be in English. Last month we voted on whether we liked the federal health-care bill, a politically easy but meaningless gesture.
Voting is the fundamental, serious business of self-government, but a republic rests on the citizens setting broad outlines – Missouri’s Hancock Amendment limiting taxes would be a good example – and then having the hired hands in places such as Washington and Jefferson City doing the detail work and periodically explaining their actions to the voters. Cluttering the ballot with special-interest gimmees only feeds voter disenchantment.
