Skelton on Prop 49 and 82

LA Times columnist takes both Prop 49, the governor's afterschool initiative and Prop 82, Rob Reiner's preschool initiative, to task in a piece today. Blame ballot-box budgeting, the bane of representative government. The more the public strips away the power of the governor and the legislature to manage tax dollars, the weaker the elected officials become — and the less that gets done in Sacramento. Ballot-box budgeting is running amok. It usually involves a noble cause with an ignoble means: raiding the treasury or gobbling up a tax source at the expense of other public needs, such as healthcare, law enforcement or classroom instruction.