Balloting Redefines ‘Democracy’

You have to believe their hearts are in the right place, but it would be interesting to know how the “Free Tibet” people feel about the freedom and rights in California these days.

In a very democratic fashion, Californians have chosen to end racial discrimination, tried to reduce the financial burden of illegal immigration and even voted to give the medicinal aspects of marijuana a try, only to have their voices quashed by various agencies of the federal government.

State leaders haven’t provided much help. The newly elected governor has all but dropped one important appeal and the legislature is busily earmarking money ($111 million for park and wildlife habitat purchases) for things most Californians have already voted against (the 1994 $2-billion Proposition 180 land-grab boondoggle).

And, as if it’s not enough to have the state and feds toss our votes out like so much dirty dishwater, local leaders are taking liberties with a good situation and not asking a substantial portion of the voting public how it feels about tax increases.

In Moorpark, a city where there’s no issue too small for an election, residents recently voted to reestablish a park maintenance tax--at least some of them did. And although it may seem harmless at face value, this latest “exercise in democracy” should be a wake-up call for taxpayers everywhere.

The city’s previous park-assessment attempt in 1997 failed to obtain the two-thirds super-majority required for parcel tax increases before the passage of Proposition 218. Taking full advantage of the new rules, no matter how poorly conceived and misunderstood they were, all city leaders had to do was mail “ballots” to property owners and wait the required 45 days. The results of this second “vote” suggest that the assessment enjoyed overwhelming support, but the numbers tell a different story.

The city mailed out about 9,000 ballots, of which 40% (not a bad “turnout” by today’s standards), or 3,627 were returned by the 45-day deadline. Of these, nearly 71% were in favor of reestablishing the assessment.

The problem with this new form of democracy is that a large portion of Moorpark’s 16,000 or so registered voters were not allowed to participate. Nearly 7,000 Moorpark residents, for whatever reason, evidently do not own their own homes and were therefore ineligible to vote on how much the city could raise taxes that their landlords would eventually pass on to them by way of rent increases.

Not since the days before women’s suffrage have so many people been excluded from participating in the democratic process, a denial that changes the support in Moorpark from its padded 71% to more like 22% to 30% at best. Although this inequity can only be changed by overhauling Proposition 218, it’s important to consider why the city had to pursue this parcel tax’s reinstatement in the first place.

Ask county or city officials why popular government services such as parks and libraries are in such dire financial straits and they will blame the state. Because the state is hoarding all the property tax revenue with which counties and cities used to pay their bills, local bureaucracies have had to turn to sales tax revenues (and the “mall wars” they inspire), “transient fees” and special assessments to get by.

Ask these officials about the state using taxpayer money to purchase more tax-liable private property and the smart ones will probably say we might as well tap-dance on a land mine. Cringing as visions of sales tax revenue going the same route as property taxes dance through their heads, there will be no sugarplums or wood nymphs in their dreams. Just the inevitable nightmare of increasing special assessments on any property that is left subject to taxation.

California’s future does not look good as long as a relative handful of people are allowed to pursue the incredibly stupid and financially destructive practice of creating “public” lands as a means to control population. And although it may seem like the right thing to do, people should take a second look at what is happening in their own backyards before they try to free others from dictatorships around the world.

By doing so, they may find that reining in the interventions and staggering costs of the gargantuan government machines that dictate their every move here will free up a little cash with which they can help those less fortunate than we used to be.