Government by Ballot Initiative No Longer Works

Prosperity has returned at last to Southern California’s economy. Now if only wisdom were to follow, we could be assured the region will fulfill its great potential in the years ahead.

But the ballot initiatives for Tuesday’s statewide primary election are characterized by argument and division, not wisdom. And that promises to reinforce a worrisome trend of bitter differences that constantly threatens progress in Southern California’s economy.

Simply put, Southern California seems less capable than the San Francisco Bay Area of intelligently deciding what to do about regional transportation, airport expansion and a host of other issues.

That’s an ominous failing at this time, because the region’s economy has recovered and become a center of global trade and new industry. So issues of growth and development confront the region’s people once again.

Southern California’s community leaders should be making their political decisions aided by analysis of regional needs and problems. Instead, we continue to rely on ballot initiatives that have become less a voice of the people than a tool of special interests seeking to impose a condition or preserve a privilege.

It would be better if most of the propositions on Tuesday’s ballot were defeated, even the ones that seem productive at first glance.

The initiatives that could most directly affect the region’s economy are Propositions 224, 226 and 227.

Proposition 224 would impose new bidding processes on design and engineering contracts for state-funded work. It would require cost comparisons between government engineers--who are responsible for putting the initiative on the ballot--and private industry in consideration for such contracts. But the proposition dictates that the cost comparisons be made in a way that would give decided advantages to the government employees.

If passed, 224 would delay and possibly increase the costs of school construction contracts in the works because of expanded student enrollments. It could stall progress on such vital projects as the Alameda Corridor. So 224 should be defeated.

Proposition 226 would require labor unions to ask a member’s permission before union dues could be used for political contributions. On its face, the measure seems incontestable: Members should have a say in how their money is used. But in reality, the measure is one aspect of a national political squabble that began in 1996 when organized labor spent heavily to oppose Republican candidates.

Southern California won’t benefit from being a battlefield. If 226 passes, unions have threatened to retaliate by opposing tax breaks for business, including those used to prevent companies from being lured away by tax breaks in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah and other states.

The unions fear that supporters of 226 will move on to a future ballot initiative to turn California into a right-to-work state, undercutting union organization. That would lead to a “scorched earth” battle between organized labor and business management that would help neither California working people nor industry.

Proposition 227 calls for ending bilingual education and is likely to pass by a wide margin. The aim is to push students to learn English as soon as possible, a goal that virtually no one disagrees with. English is the language of the new global economy; all students will be helped by learning it.

Even so, there are better ways of helping California’s diverse students than by simply passing a one-size-fits-all statewide ballot measure. Why not a compromise that allows individual school districts more flexibility? Compromises to acknowledge local conditions will be needed in any event, no matter what the outcome is at the ballot box Tuesday.

And that’s just the point for all the issues facing this vibrant region. Winner-take-all contests by ballot measure are ineffective ways to solve real problems. Orange County has voted several times on the question of an international airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Yet little has been settled and the county remains divided on the issue.

Los Angeles International Airport needs to expand its capacity to handle traffic that is a reality today. Yet the issue of added runways and other necessary alterations to the community asset of LAX has been met so far by raucous, unthinking opposition on one side and political bungling by Mayor Richard Riordan’s administration on the other.

Nowhere in Southern California are political leaders seriously discussing regional transportation plans, including high-speed rail lines to carry passengers to and from airports. Other cities such as Seattle, Salt Lake and Denver--not to mention the whole complex of cities around San Francisco Bay--have long-range transportation plans, notes Rick Cole, an urban expert with the state’s Local Government Commission and a former mayor of Pasadena.

We need to move beyond our past. The election Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of Proposition 13, the 1978 tax limitation initiative that has shaped California in ways good and bad through recent decades. One result of Proposition 13 today is that California’s lower property taxes help attract or hold companies when Arizona and other nearby states woo them.

But Proposition 13’s solution to the problem of rising real estate taxes provided an unfortunate precedent. It led to the illusion that complex problems could be solved dramatically and automatically by ballot initiative. Rules governing such intricate matters as school budgeting became inflexible.

Gradually, local government became powerless. And matters of economic development and growth languished for lack of ability or political leadership to deal with them.

It’s time for Southern California to move beyond childlike reliance on government by ballot measure. It’s a big, rich region now; wisdom is called for.