Undemocratic Vote Requirement Blocks Services Majority Wants

The results of the recent poll by the San Dieguito River Valley regional park authority were not encouraging to the park planners or to San Diegans who see the urgent need to preserve open space. But the poll provided a good portrait of what voters are willing to pay for and of the limitations of Proposition 13.

Open space was last on a list of seven public services that voters would finance, with only 35.5% in support of it. But the other six--police, jails, roads, water and sewer improvements, and parks--all garnered majority support. And police even surpassed the two-thirds test required of most new taxes by Proposition 13, with 77% of survey respondents saying they would pay for more officers. Jails came close with 63.8%.

For park planners, the survey results mean that they face a major public education effort to build support for the proposed North County park that will run from the coast in Del Mar to the foothills near Julian. Estimates exceed $100 million for acquiring the privately held land. To put that in perspective, $10 a year per household countywide would raise $100 million. But the cost of that land is going up each year. Funds need to be found soon, or some valuable pieces of property will be lost to development.

Park planners also would do well to listen to what the voters said they want in a park: active recreation areas rather than undeveloped open space.

But the poll is also a reminder of the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the two-thirds vote requirement. At least 58% of the voters surveyed said they would be willing to pay for a broad range of public services. But it’s the 42% minority who are calling the shots. Over and over in recent years, tax measures for such basic services as schools, parks and jails have failed to get a two-thirds vote.

We have to wonder if even Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park would be here today if they had needed the financial support of two-thirds of the voters.