Along with term limits, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann is proposing that Wisconsin have the sort of government by voter initiative that has worked so well elsewhere.
Along with term limits, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann is proposing that Wisconsin have the sort of government by voter initiative that has worked so well elsewhere.
We need a Proposition 13:
ReplyDeleteThe proposition's passage resulted in a cap on property tax rates in the state, reducing them by an average of 57%. In addition to lowering property taxes, the initiative also contained language requiring a two-thirds majority in both legislative houses for future increases in all state tax rates or amounts of revenue collected, including income tax rates. It also requires two-thirds vote majority in local elections for local governments wishing to raise special taxes.
Democrats in Madison have spent like drunken sailors. Lehman and Mason are among the worst of the bunch. This kind of change would make those we send to Madison accountable to the taxpayers, and not the special interests like WEAC and the public employee unions that Lehman and Mason represent.
What do you expect. Washington is borrowing failed policies and programs from Europe. These policies like high debt, public healthcare and others failed badly over there and now carry a over 10% constant unemployment. Yet with all that knowledge the US is on the edge of passing a pork barrel laden bill that is doomed to be an even bigger failure.
ReplyDeleteNew idea... let's try things that have succeeded elsewhere not failed elsewhere.
Well, we certainly don't want the voters running government. Professional political thieves do a much better job.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia is financially f'd up right now. I don't think that is the model for success.
ReplyDeleteNext candidate please.
California is messed up and the voters are turning things around. The politicians over spending all this time has it in the current condition.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that California is not a model to follow. Much of their current budget crisis is a result of citizen initiatives that have committed the state to spending money in areas that the legislature knew the state could not afford. The state legislature there is hardly blameless, but the Californian voter often shackled the state with spending that even the democratic legislature opposed.
ReplyDeleteStill, there is nothing inherently wrong with voter initiatives. 24 states have an initiative process, and it is only for a few that there seems to be any sort of problem.
The problem in California is that it is ridiculously easy to get issues on the ballot. Depending on the type of initiative California requires a simple collection of voter signatures equal to either 5% or 8% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election. Now this is not nothing, but is it significantly easier than a state like Missouri.
Missouri also requires similar thresholds of 5% and 8%, but in addition it requires that this be spread out across all the congressional districts in the same proportion as the gubernatorial vote. For example: Since 301,597 people voted in the 1st Congressional District for Governor in 2008, at least 15,080 voter signatures must be collected from that district to reach the 5% need for a statutory change initiative. Likewise, 19,148 will need to be collected in the 2nd district, 15,609 in the 3rd, etc.
So, in Missouri it is like doing 9 different petition drives across the state...and all 9 have to have enough valid signatures for an imitative to reach the ballot. This makes it much harder to get an initiative on the ballot than California, where all the signatures could come from a same area in the state.
Now let's consider how this difference has played out. California is silly with the voter initiatives, while Missouri is not.
So, what is Neumann proposing? From the link provided it sounds like something more like the Missouri model, but even harder to get an initiative on the ballot. He is proposing a method that would require a proportionate number of signatures from EACH COUNTY! This is so different from the California method that the implying that it would lead to a similar outcome is erroneous and best, and possibly disingenuous.
Term limits are a GREAT idea.
ReplyDeleteThis guy gets an automatic DQ from me on the California comment. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteScott Walker is looking better all the time.
We need a Proposition 13:
ReplyDeletelol what? congrats on being delusional. If there's one thing that contributed the most to the current California budget crisis, it's Prop 13.
Out of control spending.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:06 - No, the problem in California is out of control spending, just as it is here. In fact, our deficit, on a per capita basis, is higher than California's. If we allow the tax and spend democrats to continue to destroy the economy, chase companies and people out of the state through onerous taxation, and spend money they don't have, we will be in worse shape than California.
ReplyDelete