‘Ballot-Box Budgeting’ Wasteful, Editorial States
The Orange County Register this week published two editorials addressing Proposition 86, a measure on the November statewide ballot that would increase the state tobacco tax by $2.60 to fund health programs. Summaries appear below.
- Proposition 86 "shows what's wrong with funding programs" through ballot initiatives, a Register editorial states. According to the Register, "many of the programs" the measure would fund "are worthy," but they "likely will conflict with existing state programs, creating waste and inefficiency, or fund existing programs that may already have adequate funding." The Register writes, "This is a major reason why, if the state must fund these programs, the normal legislative budget process, with its checks and balances among interest groups, is the best way to go" (Orange County Register, 8/17).
- Proposition 86 "likely would spawn a vast black market in cigarette sales," a Register editorial states. "[I]t's not hard to see how people taking trips to Nevada will stock up on cigarettes there, where the tax is 80 cents a pack, for themselves and their friends," the editorial states, adding that "the Mexican border is porous not only to people but goods" (Orange County Register, 8/18).