Growth in Ballot Initiatives

It looks like both progressives and conservatives are using ballot initiatives to directly implement legislation. Here in New Jersey, we recently approved a small increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25.

There was also another interesting ballot proposal in California that did not get enough signatures to be included on the november ballot. The voter initiave would have increased the oil and gas extraction tax to 8% in california and used the money to reduce education costs.  California has no natural resource extraction tax.

The website for the California Modernization and Economic Development Act

LA Times story on CMEDA.