August 24, 2006

"California ballot measure that backers tried to kill won't die"

"An initiative to protect gas tax money from raids by the Legislature, which had been purposely crippled and left for dead by its own backers, is heading to voters anyway.

The office of Secretary of State Bruce McPherson confirmed Wednesday that the initiative qualified for the June 2008 ballot with 605,610 valid signatures.

The proposal, which strictly bars any non-transportation use of state gas tax money, was originally made last spring and was drafted by an alliance of labor, business and local government interests. Then in May, the governor and legislative leaders struck a compromise in Proposition 1A that, though weaker, was eventually endorsed by those backing the original proposal.

Now they will be in the awkward position of opposing their own measure. As part of the compromise, they had tried to prevent the initiative from qualifying by not submitting 300,000 signatures, but were surprised when even a much-smaller sample gave them 7,507 more valid signatures than necessary."

The story is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at August 24, 2006 09:06 AM