Supporting the Transgender Non-Discrimination Act: Part 2

By Marc Korman.

http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2008/07/supporting-transgender-non_18.html

In part one I discussed the contents of the Transgender Non-Discrimination Act up for repeal on the November ballot. For the policy reasons alone, I oppose repeal. But there are also two political reasons: ballot initiatives run amuck and rewarding the far right.

Ballot Initiatives Run Amuck
I first got involved in politics while in college in California. The Golden State has provided us with endless hours of entertainment from Hollywood, the ability to read MPW from Silicon Valley, and the nectar of the gods from Napa. Unfortunately, it has also set the tone for ballot initiatives. As of 2003, 85% of California's over $100 billion budget was controlled by state initiative and not the legislature and governor. California's ability to raise revenue has also been severely harmed by a property tax cap so rigid even Ronald Reagan opposed it at the time and the need for supermajorities in the legislature to raise any tax. That means when California has a problem, for example an electricity crisis as they had a few years ago or an infrastructure deficit as they are currently experiencing, elected officials cannot effectively work for solutions. For a full treatment of California's political decline relative to its increased ballot initiatives, see Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom. California has helped trigger a national increase in ballot initiatives. Their use has grown from just 88 across the country during the entire decade of the 60s, to 204 in 2000 alone.