Californians for the Fair Property Assessment Plan
The Direct Initiative Process in California is Reasonably Simple and
Straightforward.
A
proponent drafts a statute or a proposed amendment to the California
constitution and submits it to the Secretary of State along with a fee of $200.
It is then submitted to the Attorney General for the purpose of providing a
title and summary of the proposed initiative. The Office of the Legislative
Analyst and the Department of Finance are asked for a fiscal analysis to
provide an estimate of the fiscal effect of the measure for the summary. The
Attorney General is not authorized to make any changes to the proposal. The
Secretary of State then approves it for circulation. The proponent has 150 days
to gather signatures of registered voters in the state. The number of
signatures required varies according to the kind of initiative and the number
of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last gubernatorial
election.
The
signatures are submitted to county elections officials for a determination of
the validity of the signatures. If the Secretary of State determines that there
are sufficient valid signatures, the measure will be placed on the ballot for
the next general election that is held no longer than 131 days after it
qualifies or for a special election held before that general election.
Californians believe that initiatives (39%) should have more influence than the legislature (32%) or governor (18%) over state policy.
The following cross tabulation shows that Regardless of Partisanship Ca voters prefer having themselves make decisions about long-term budget and governmental reforms over the legislature and governor by a margin of more than 45 percentage points.
Additionally, Regardless of Partisanship and Region, Ca voters favor the initiative process to make public policy over the governor and legislature by more than 15 percent.
Even though many voters believe that special interests have a lot (56%) or some (36%) control over the initiative process, 74 percent of adults and 79 percent of likely California voters believe that initiatives are important because they address significant public policy issues that the governor and state legislatures have failed to adequately address.
PPIC STATEWIDE SURVEY: SPECIAL SURVEY ON CALIFORNIANS AND THE INITIATIVE
PROCESS (SEPTEMBER 12-19, 2005)
2,004 CALIFORNIA ADULT RESIDENTS: ENGLISH AND SPANISH (Margin of Error +/-2% at 95% confidence level for total sample)
