On election days, voters become public officials, and on November 5th Californians made the most of the opportunity by, as it now appears, rejecting Proposition 5 and passing Proposition 36. While they celebrate those victories, the people might recall a greater loss.
Proposition 5 was an attack on the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation,” the famous Proposition 13 from 1978, when some Californians were literally being taxed out of their homes. Proposition 5 would have reduced the two-thirds vote to pass bonds to 55 percent, making property tax hikes more likely.
Proposition 36 aimed to restore the damage from the 2014 Proposition 47, which reduced some felonies to misdemeanors. The “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” so named by state attorney general Kamala Harris, looked the other way at theft of property valued at less than $950. The measure launched a wave of shoplifting and vandalism that continues to this day.
As........