i want to know...

[toastykitten]

Did any of you vote yesterday?
Why do Californians have to vote on budget proposals? Seriously, isn't this kind of dumb, as Californians generally don't like to pay new taxes even though our liberal selves keep passing measures that require spending more money anyway? And then we wonder why we're broke? It's not like I want the Californian government to enact stupid policies, but it seems like we wouldn't be in as deep a hole if we left a lot of the budget stuff to the actual legislature. (I have no idea if this is a better idea or not, but the current process seems untenable.)
Why do we have so many elections in the first place? I think this is the third one in Los Angeles so far. Why do we have run-off elections? Why can't we just choose first and second choice, or whatever that option is called?
If less than ten percent of the populace votes, how is that a fair and democratic process?

Comments

[toastykitten.livejournal.com]

Well, that is what happened basically. But everybody saw OHNOESTAXINCREASES and didn't vote for anything except to slash politicians' salaries. I did read up on the actual policies, and some of them were okay - not great, but reasonable under the circumstances. I wonder if there's a way to get people to see past the whole OHNOTAXESTAKEMYMONEY part, and get them to acknowledge, ok, if I want a, b, and c to happen, money has to be spent, and it has to come from somewhere, and it doesn't come out of thin air.

Not that I want more taxes myself. But I don't know - I find the whole thing baffling.

[toastykitten.livejournal.com]

also, i am totally talking out my ass here. the whole thing is way more complex than i'm making it out to be.

[loic.livejournal.com]

IIRC, there was a constitutional amendment at some point that required voter approval for tax rises. Turns out sometimes you need to raise taxes.