Sorry about the misunderstanding, Chris. Are you proposing then that
we pick a topic and subsequently pay for a short survey on that topic
to fine-tune our proposal?
Another problem with doing a survey is that voters will potentially
react very differently to a proposal based on a whole bunch of
different factors, making it difficult to compare how they'd react to
all the various possible combinations. For example getting meaningful
poll results on a salary cap measure is not simply a matter of finding
out how many voters favor theoretical caps at each level. There are
many sub-factors which could be at least as pivotal as the base number
in affecting a measure's chances of passage. For instance, would the
cap include overtime? Would it be indexed for inflation or cost of
living? Would it apply to current officials (thus requiring actual pay
cuts) or only future hires, appointees, and officeholders? Would it
apply to privately-financed positions like the chief financial officer
they just hired for the school district with corporate money? Would
valuable non-cash benefits such as free housing be covered? Would there
be any exemptions, for example allowing a higher salary to be offered
if no qualified people applied for a particular position because of the
salary cap? Would it kick in only in bad budget years, or disappear in
good budget years? All of these options are the kind of thing we can
use to fine-tune a proposal in order to either make it more palatable
on the one hand or to have hidden teeth on the other.
Personally I think even a $100,000 salary cap will be a tough sell,
and that we shouldn't propose a lower number like $75,000 or $50,000.
The important thing would be the powerful symbolism and precedent of
simply passing *any* salary cap on government officials. Even if a poll
were to show us way ahead on such an issue, the numbers might look a
lot different by the time the press and the opposition campaign's
political hit pieces got through savaging the proposal.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't propose such an issue however. I don't
think this project has to succeed in the final outcome (i.e. get a
measure passed by the voters) in order to be a success. Getting
something on the ballot, or even just circulating petitions and failing
to get on the ballot, should have positive effects, not least of which
is raising the profile of whatever issue we push. It might result in
other people with more political clout suggesting less radical measures
which still take us in the direction of reform.
Yours in liberty,
<<< Starchild >>>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1An alternative, which Chris suggested, is first paying for a
voter survey to determine what kind of measure would be popular with
voters.That was actually not my suggestion. What I proposed was that, given a
particular issue (salary caps, tax breaks, parking laws), we do a
survey to
find out what specific features would be likely to pass. For instance,
would a $50,000 salary cap pass? $75,000? $100,000? We should
propose
the lowest cap likely to pass.~Chris
- --
Christopher R. Maden, Chair, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
The Party of Principle: individual freedom and personal responsibility
<URL: http://www.lpsf.org/ > +1.415.775.LPSF
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