Thursday, November 03, 2005

NO on 78 and 79: The Initiative Process Is No Place for Drug Plan Policy

Propositions 78 and 79 offer two different prescription drug discount plans. For very similar reasons as I'm voting NO on Prop 80, I am also voting a "prima facie NO" on both of these. These are complex pieces of policy that would require a real policy wonk to make an informed decision about, and have no business on a general ballot. An initiative statute is just the wrong way to do this. Each of these propositions would add a couple dozen sections, over a hundred clauses of fine print, into State law. And once enacted by initiative, if it ever needs to be modified, it will require another initiative to fix it. There are situations where initiative statutes may be appropriate, but enacting drug discount policy is most certainly NOT one of them. Just vote NO.

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