Back in 1912, way before YouTube-sponsored forays into voter empowerment—what’s next, the Electoral College brought to you by Facebook?—state lawmakers enacted the initiative process both to curtail the business lobby’s influence and to give voters the power to make laws that politicians couldn’t or wouldn’t. The process was straightforward: find an issue, obtain support (signatures on a petition) and, voila, your cause is on the ballot.
Since then, initiatives have targeted everything from prohibition (1918) to indoor smoking (2006) to, most recently, a proposed 3-percent gaming tax increase on casinos generating more than $1 million a month. Sought by the Nevada State Education Association, the fee hike would annually generate up to $400 million for education.
It’s a compelling narrative: slightly fleecing the haves (gaming) to help the have-nots (public education). What Grinch wouldn’t support a few extra nickels to help kids read, or teachers buy homes? All of which totally misses the point. Because initiatives are single-issue directives—they can do one thing and one thing only—they reduce complex issues (our entire tax system needs examination) to simplistic tugs at our emotional heartstrings, overdemocratizing politics in the process.
Suddenly everything’s up for referendum. Say you want to ban bakeries from using sugar. Craft a soundbite-y argument—We’re getting fat while bakeries are fattening their pockets. What do we want? Splenda! When do we want it? Now! Give your proposal an ear-catching title like, say, the Nevada Clean Out Your Insides So You Won’t Die an Early Death Act. And start knocking on doors. Where does it stop?
NSEA president Lynn Warne defends the process: “We’ve always supported broadening the base of business taxes, but we’ve been disappointed with the results because nothing has ever happened. We know that the public overwhelmingly supports improving education, so we’ve taken matters into our own hands. The petition process isn’t an easy process; we need 60,000 signatures statewide.”
Paul Jacob believes in the initiative process so much that he could go to prison for 20 years for it. In October, the Oklahoma attorney general indicted him for illegally petitioning to put a taxpayers’ bill of rights on the ballot. “Industries have lobbyists in Carson City, but Nevada voters don’t. Without initiatives, the legislature is a monopoly,” he says.
But aren’t voters like sheep? We can be misled into voting against our best interests. Wouldn’t further dialogue be more prudent in this case?
“With candidate races, they tell you one thing but do another,” Jacob says. “The ballot measure is generally black and white. If voters muddle things up, it’s not an argument against the initiative. Voters do make mistakes, but they can also correct them.”