Saturday, October 4, 2003 - PosttheFinances.COM

On Saturday, October 4, the 180,000-circulation Inland Empire of Southern California newspaper featured an article entitled, "Initiative barrage puts state in bind, experts say," by Sharon McNary. The article discussed the large role ballot initiatives now play in Californian politics.

Steve Mozena, proponent of the Post the Finances initiative, was featured prominently in the lead to the story:

"Steve Mozena is a self-described ‘average guy from Carson’ who just couldn't get the Legislature to listen. So he wrote a ballot initiative to take his case straight to California voters. ‘Having an initiative is a wonderful avenue for citizens when they feel that their voice is not being heard,’ said Mozena, who wants California's finances posted on the Internet. Mozena, 43, a Web-based textbook publisher with a wife and baby daughter, is not rich. So far, he is out just a $200 fee. He will need volunteers and financial backing to collect 370,000 signatures to qualify his initiative for the ballot, but he said in a phone interview that he thinks he can find the money."

The article went on to raise questions that experts typically ask about the wisdom of many Californian initiatives approved by the voters over the last 25 years. Most of the objections concern initiatives that tie up large percentages of the state’s budget, such as Prop. 98, passed in 1988, that reserves 40 percent of the budget for education.

Another objection voiced in the article was that initiatives are often used by special interest groups to further their own causes and bypass the legislature. It should be noted that the Post the Finances initiative will not eat up large chunks of the state budget. Mozena believes that on the contrary, it could save the state millions of dollars every year.

Post the Finances is also a bi-partisan, grass-roots initiative that is not tainted by special interests. According to the Inland Empire article, some experts have recommended amendments to the initiative process.

In 2001, the Commission on the California Initiative Process proposed "adding a new indirect initiative. The Legislature could review such proposals and, while adhering to the intent of the proposal, review, modify and adopt the proposal, meaning it would not reach the ballot."

Another possibility the article mentioned is to require voters to approve an initiative on two consecutive ballots, a procedure that is currently followed in Nebraska, for example.

For comment, the article returned in its final paragraph to Steve Mozena:

"Mozena said many of those alternatives would be acceptable to him, winning his proposal a legislative review and saving him the expense of signature-gathering.

‘I would like to give them the opportunity to make it into a law,’ he said. ‘But I don't want them to be able to dice it up.’"