Editorial: Californians disappoint with voting decisions
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 20, 2009 9:40 p.m.
California voters ““ at least those who bothered to show up at the polls Tuesday ““ managed to make our state’s financial situation even worse than it already is. We thought it couldn’t be done, but we were wrong.
Our state has a history of fickle, tough-to-please voters. As the Los Angeles Times put it: “Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.”
Admittedly, not all the ballot measures were great ideas. Propositions 1D and 1E, for instance, deserved the majority of the “No” votes they received.
However, Propositions 1A, 1B and 1C all should have been passed. Proposition 1B, which would have reformed education funding, should have especially been passed.
There are no good explanations as to why voters rejected a measure to protect school funding. Maybe Californians simply didn’t want to give state officials the satisfaction of passing their ideas into law.
Either way, voters should have done a lot more research before heading to the polls Tuesday.
And, as always, more people should have shown up to vote.
By voting “No” on these essential fiscal issues, we as a state have only further plunged ourself into insurmountable debt and an incomprehensible range of problems.
