Propositions

State propositions: An article in Tuesday's Section A about conservative efforts to place propositions on state ballots said a measure pushed by initiative promoter Ward Connerly to limit affirmative action in government had stalled in Nebraska. Such a measure stalled in Oklahoma, but one is set to appear on the Nebraska ballot.

Perhaps you've seen oilman T. Boone Pickens on television advertising the "Pickens Plan" for alternative energy, urging Americans to wean themselves from foreign fuel by adopting natural gas and wind power. Pickens has another plan he isn't advertising and from which he also stands to profit. He wants Californians to borrow $5 billion to invest in natural gas and alternative energy by voting yes on Proposition 10 on the November ballot.

There has been a lot of screaming that Sacramento fails to live within its means, and the howlers are correct. But on Nov. 4, the voters will have their hands on the state checkbook. It's called ballot box budgeting -- when many Californians who normally cry about red ink become hypocrites, voting for nice-sounding proposals that further bloat the overspending. On election day, voters will have an opportunity to jack up annual state spending by at least $1.

The award for the most cynical, mendacious, Orwellian campaign of the state election season goes to the opponents of Proposition 11, the redistricting reform initiative. Prop. 11 would strip away the Legislature's power to draw its own districts, which means the authority for lawmakers to select their own voters. It's a blatant conflict of interest. The once-a-decade chore would be turned over to a 14-member independent citizens commission.

With hundreds of veterans returning to California from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, voters are being asked to borrow $900 million to provide low-cost mortgages for those who served in the military. Californians have approved similar requests 26 times before, allocating $8.4 billion toward home loans for more than 420,000 veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest measure, Proposition 12 on the Nov.

For a quarter century it has been a California dream on one drafting board or another -- a bullet train system so novel, environmentally friendly and fleet that it could reshape transportation in the car-crazy Golden State. Now, state voters will be asked Nov. 4 to provide some locomotion by approving nearly $10 billion as a down payment toward the ultimate vision of an 800-mile high-speed rail network.

Re "Endorsements 2008," editorial, Oct. 11 Thank you for your editorial endorsements for the Nov. 4 ballot propositions. The propositions on the ballot are described in a 144-page Official Voter Information Guide and a 16-page supplement. Is the typical voter really expected to read and comprehend all of this legalese? These propositions should have been debated and decided on by the Legislature with the benefit of input from technical and legal experts. Passing the buck to voters demonstrates irresponsibility by the Legislature and is an imposition on citizens.

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has an ambitious vision for its new building: ceilings decorated with happy images, playrooms on each floor, beds for parents to stay overnight in rooms with their ailing kids. Some of that $548-million project is being funded through borrowing that California voters approved in 2004 to help expand and update the state's 13 public and private children's hospitals. But all the hospitals say they need more. They are returning to the ballot Nov.

Two energy propositions on the Nov. 4 ballot illustrate the pitfalls of trying to write state laws by "citizen" initiative. One, Prop. 10, is pitched as a measure to reduce California's dependence on foreign oil and clean the air. And it may do that. But it's also a straight-out windfall for the measure's chief sponsor and bankroller, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens. The initiative would authorize $5 billion in state bonds -- $3.

A quarter-century after the slaying of Marsalee Nicholas, a college student from Malibu, voters will consider an initiative launched in her name that would give a stronger voice to crime victims and their families, and impose harsher treatment on convicted killers. Proposition 9 would alter the state Constitution to require that crime victims be notified and consulted on developments in their cases.