Voters Do the Work of State Legislature

In her Oct. 27 column, “We’re Taking Way Too Much Initiative,” Patt Morrison has it exactly right. Voters are required to do the job of legislators. We elect and pay legislators to make the big decisions on altering the state Constitution, issuing bonds, raising and lowering taxes.

But with 16 complicated state propositions on the ballot, I am now forced to do their job.

I differ slightly with Morrison on how to correct it: Rather than have the legislators’ $140 daily allowance go into opponents’ campaign funds for every proposition the Legislature should have decided, I suggest each voter be given the $140 for doing the Legislature’s job.

If I am going to work as a legislator, I want to be paid. Maybe I’ll get a proposition on the ballot....

Victoria Dailey

Beverly Hills

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I strongly agree with Morrison’s contention that there are way too many propositions, the implication being that our legislators are not doing their job in Sacramento. I say, let’s fire the whole bunch and start over, this time stripping away the requirement of a two-thirds vote to pass certain legislation.

Once we have restored the simple majority vote, let us, the voting public, truly pay attention to what our legislators are doing and hold them accountable at the ballot box.

Robert C. Lutes

Temple City

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Re “Coming Soon: ‘Apocalypse Now,’ the Voters’ Cut,” Commentary, Oct. 26: Joe Mathews is all in a lather over initiatives. He informs us that the Legislature passes “hundreds of new laws a year.” This prompts me to ask once again: Will there ever be a sufficiency of laws, regulations, bans and ordinances? How many laws are needed? Are “hundreds of new laws” per year really necessary?

A free society, it seems to me, might need a couple of hundred laws in the 150-plus years this state has existed. We would all be better off if the Legislature dissolved itself.

As Judge Gideon J. Tucker observed: “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

James F. Glass

Chatsworth