There are six items on the May 19 ballot. The PPIC poll last week offered no good news for the political leadership in the state. The only proposition that is winning is 1F - would prevent pay raises for elected officials if they don't get the budget done by the deadlines in the constitution. That one has 81% of the voters supporting it. The response on that measure suggests that people are grumpy. Over the next couple of days I will offer some comments on the remaining five measures.
1F is a silly idea on its face. But based on the experience of the last few years, I will vote with the vast majority and vote YES.
The PPIC poll had some other interesting developments. For example, it said only 11% of the voters had confidence in the legislature. That is about a third of the level gained by the Governor. 48% of the respondents said they did not like their own Assemblyman or Senator. That is in contrast to the 55% who support their individual member of the House.
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Your characterization of 1F as freezing elected representatives' salaries "if they don't get the budget done by the deadlines" is inaccurate: rather, the measure would prevent salaries from being raised in years when there is a projected deficit. While 1F may further encourage the legislature to formulate balanced budgets (already required by the constitution), its effect on the timeliness of creating these budgets has not been projected.
Actually corrected before this comment. My point was to suggest that the proposal is unlikely to do much to improve the abilities of the legislature to do careful budget policy.
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