The genesis of the concept of voter approved initiative originated in California. It was implemented in the early 1900’s to give voters the ability to circumvent the legislature which was dominated and influence heavily by special interests of various kinds including: railroad companies and mega-industrial powers. The original intent of the initiative was innocent to say the least. However, since its inception it has become one of the primary factors that have contributed to California’s governmental dysfuntionalism.

Over the decades the initiative process has subjected the state to numerous laws and regulations that bind legislators and the executive when it comes to drafting legislation and implementing reforms to fix state government. This is especially the case regarding the state budget. For the past twenty years the state has suffered from chronic budget deficits. Although there are various reasons as to why California goes into the red every year, one specific reason that can be accredited to the chronic budget problem is the passage of specific initiatives, such as Prop 13. Prop 13 re-directed the collection of the state’s income from property taxes to individuals personal incomes. The initial intent of Prop 13 was well intended, to assist low-income and the elderly from skyrocketing property taxes, thus allowing them to keep their property as well as their homes.

Prop 13 passed with an overwhelming majority of voter support, however, as with most voter approved initiatives, no one bothered to research the consequences of what this initiative would have on the state budget, or neglected to emphasize specific troubles that the state would encounter in the proceeding decades. In short, the state is bound by very few individuals who make up well over half of the states intake of taxes. According to the Legislative Analysts Office These individuals account for less than three percent of returns but almost 50 percent of liabilities. In contrast, tax payers with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) of less than $50,000 accounted for over 70 percent of returns but less than 10 percent of liabilities. The higher the incomes of individuals, the higher their incomes are taxed making AGI’s progressive meaning: that the personal income taxes rates rise with income causing taxpayers with higher taxable incomes to pay proportionately larger share of their incomes in taxes than those with lower incomes.

This is problematic in terms of having a stable source of revenue. As the income of these individuals drop, so does state revenues. In economic hardship, the state must acclimate itself to find ways of filling budget gaps and finding new revenues sources, raise taxes, or cut programs. If the state ever wants to alleviate itself from this problem it not only must change its antiquated system of collecting taxes, as well as, overhauling voter discretion regarding the initiative process. Undoubtedly voters did not realize the full extent of the budgetary consequences while passing Prop 13 and what it would do to lawmakers ability to implement reforms.

The process itself has gotten so problematic that California’s Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald George, has advocated its reform, “no where is the practice of government by voter initiative as extreme as it is in California.” According to him California is the only state to bar legislators from changing most voter-approved initiatives, and one of the few that permit constitutional amendments by a majority of public vote, with no legislative oversight. He suggests that California limit the process that other states have implemented and require extensive oversight such as requiring more than a simple majority for constitutional amendments, require legislative review before or after initiatives reach the ballot or ban initiative backers from using paid signature-collectors. I would have to concur with Chief Justice George, however, getting the rest of the state to acknowledge such amendments to the initiative process, let alone approving them seems at most challenging in every respect.

Note: you can read the rest of Chief Justice Ronald George in the Sunday edition of the Fresno Bee, February 21, 2010 “Initiative process blasted again: Chief justice says props favor special interest.”

First up: ArtHop! ArtHop takes place the first Thursday of every month and allows anyone and everyone to take a free tour of the city’s art galleries (betcha didn’t even know Fresno had multiple art galleries, huh?). Make sure to check out the Iron Bird Cafe. it recently opened in a cool little development on the edge of downtown. They apparently have someone tied up on a wall or something…

Next: RogueHop! Okay okay so maybe the title needs some work but this is the Rogue Festival’s teaser, kick-off, whathaveyou. It’s from 5-8 PM at the Ashtree Studio, it’s that building surrounded by grass on Wishon, followed by the Pre-Party (as opposed to the pre-after party which is what Queer Fresno will be throwing on March 12th) at Full Circle Brewing Company.

So yes, that’s two – count ‘em 1, 2 – things to do during the week in Fresyes. We’re movin’ on up!

We have a guest speaker coming from EQCA to talk about volunteer opportunities.  Don’t miss out!

David Reitz
United Student Pride President
California State University Fresno
  email: onecreativeword@gmail.com
  cell: (559) 930-3888

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Dear Community Members;

      March 28th, 2010 marks the start of LGBT Awareness week.  In celebration of that week and in an attempt to bring our community together to exchange awareness of services available to and provided by the LGBT community, The Living Room, a Project of WestCare is extending an invitation to you.

      Please join us on Friday, April 2, 2010, from 6PM to 8PM, for a community forum, made possible by a grant from Gilead.  We will have tables available for community members to present their agencies and services, and encourage community members to exchanges ideas, mingle with each other to become more aware of what we have to offer each other and, perhaps, form new friendships over some finger foods.

      The County of Fresno Department of Community Health will be on site, with the mobile van to offer free HIV testing.  The Living Room will be providing education and prevention as well as answering any questions you may have about our services.

      We encourage those who want a table to bring promotional items, or contribute an item for raffle.  If you would like to reserve a table, please call us by March 22, as space is limited.  Contact Toni Harrison at 237-3420 X 236.

In case you have not already heard, QN is sponsoring this year’s Rogue Festival in the Tower District. We are donating advertising on our sites and email blasts to help promote this great cultural event in Fresno.  This is probably one of the premier festivals in the Tower and we’re glad to be helping such a fine event.  The event organizers approached us a few months back and wanted us to help them get the word out.  They have donated advertising and given us links to some of our blogs from the Rogue website and we’re super stoked to be one of their promotional partners this year.

If you want to check out some of the other sponsors for the event you can click here:

http://roguefestival.com/rogue2010/?page_id=453

Queer Fresno will be sponsoring and hosting the Friday night party on March 12^th at Starline.  It’ll be late because they’re having a performance there until 10pm but we’ll start letting people in by 10:30ish I’m sure.  So come on out and party with us as Queer Fresno goes Rogue in 2010!!!

dj_so_fresh84@yahoo.com

Thanks so much Julio!