Examiner Page - Happy New Year! A few ballot predictions for 2009

Welcome to 2009! Thanks to some exciting elections, 2008 was a banner year for anyone interested in politics. Well, don’t change the channel just yet, folks, because the politics of 2009 will hit us all squarely in our wallets. For example, due to state-level issues, we know that there will be a special election this year. And allow me to predict the obvious here: the ballot for San Franciscans will be a doozy. It won’t be as long as November’s screed, but it won’t sport cute ideas like changing the name of “Bush Street” to “Imbecile Avenue,” either. Here’s what it will probably contain:

1. Higher taxes. The California Constitution only allows the Board of Supervisors to put tax increases on the ballot in an election where voters are also electing members of the Board of Supervisors. With no supervisor seats scheduled to be voted on in 2009, we’re safe from a tax increase, right? Well, no. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule. First, if the board unanimously declares an emergency, it can put a tax increase on the ballot that would only need a majority vote to pass. Second, a proposal to raise taxes could be put on the ballot by the usual means (mayor, board or signatures), but it would need the support of two-thirds of the voters in order to pass. Look for attempts to use these loopholes in 2009.

2. Charter reform. This year, voters can also expect to weigh in on at least one initiative to eliminate a budget set-aside from the City Charter. Funding for the symphony, for example, is just the kind of unsympathetic, fancy-pants set-aside that voters might repeal in the face of drastic social-services cuts. At the same time, interest groups who want their own charter set-asides will put them on the ballot. Last, because the financial struggles of 2008 have highlighted the mayor’s power to control the budgetary process, look for frustrated groups to push for a charter amendment that would limit the power of the mayor.

3. Proposition 8 fallout: The state Supreme Court will render a decision on the legal challenges to Proposition 8 this year. If Prop. 8 is allowed to remain in effect, it is open season on constitutional rights! Statewide, we can look forward to ballot measures that get rid of due process for “sketchy-looking people,” and replace Miranda warnings with “Carmen Miranda warnings” — requiring police officers to tell suspects, “You have the right to Chica Chica Boom Chic!”

The bottom line: signature-gathering season is coming! Beware of geeks bearing clipboards.

Comments

[gdewar]

My mom and I and my brother went to the Cliff House for brunch today, and the guy next to us at the bar had an SFEX and was reading your column....and he and his missus seemed to enjoy it. Good job!

it's weird how Gray Davis was turned out for far less "alleged" nonsense as we are in now...and yet ol' Doofinator keeps his job. Decades of half-assed budgeting and the Prop 13 lie that took away local control for local and school governments (unintentionally as we are now hearing from the authors of Prop. 13) have ensured that the state gets to screw everyone while the locals take the political hit.

It's time the state got out of the business of funding schools and transit. If a bunch of hippies in San Francisco elect to tax the crap out of themselves for transit, bike paths and whatnot, fine. The hard core conservatives in the OC don't have to pay for it. But we in an urban area should not have to pay for the 1/3 GOP minority who will screw any budget without crazy crapola in it to satisfy their ideological needs.