Are You in Favor of a State Spending Limit?

Backers of an initiative to limit government spending were given approval Monday to begin gathering signatures by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

Valid signatures from 807,615 registered voters—8 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 general election—must be submitted by Aug. 13 to qualify what backers have dubbed the "Government Spending Limit Act of 2012" for the November ballot.

The initiative would limit annual state spending to the previous year's level, adjusted for growth in the state's personal income, require surplus revenue to first be spent on debt service and strengthen the two-thirds vote requirement for bills increasing or creating taxes, according to Teresa Casazza, president of the California Taxpayers Association, one of the initiative's backers.

"The politicians haven't enacted real pension reform," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, another of the initiative's backers. "They haven't streamlined government or prioritized spending programs. Instead of cutting waste, corruption and inefficiencies, they threaten cuts to programs like schools and law enforcement unless we raise taxes. This measure will allow voters to make a clear choice between higher taxes or responsible limits on government spending."

The initiative is opposed by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who told the Mercury News it "would send California's public schools, universities and colleges sliding into perpetual mediocrity."

California voters approved a spending limit, Proposition 4, in 1979, but it was gutted by the passage of the 1988 school spending measure, Proposition 98, and the 1990 sales tax increase, Proposition 211.

Voters rejected a spending limit, Proposition 76 on the November 2005 ballot.