Daily Show On California Ballot Initiatives: Direct Democracy Is 'Clearly Flawed' (VIDEO)

On Monday evening The Daily Show took on California's ballot initiative system with a segment called "California's Direct Democracy Troubles."

While correspondent John Oliver is usually the comedic heart of these shorts, John Burton, chairman of the Democratic Party in California, stole the show. In one exchange, the foul-mouthed politico held forth on everything from the ballot initiative system ("it's totally f**ked up") to Proposition 13 (a property tax law that has "f**ked up the state forever") to the state's inability to pay for education (the voters "bought a bag of bulls**t and voted for it.")

Oliver's reaction? "You curse more than a West Coast rapper."

Oliver then delved into Amazon's battle against California sales tax as an example of how direct democracy could be "hijacked" by large corporations.

Governor Jerry Brown had signed a bill earlier in 2011 that would begin collecting sales tax from the online giant, Amazon. In response, the internet retailer severed ties with almost 25,000 California businesses that sell on their platform and launched a referendum campaign to overturn Brown's new law with a ballot initiative.

Amazon has since reached a compromise with California; in exchange for dropping the referendum campaign, Amazon doesn't have to pay sales taxes until at least 2012, according to the Associated Press. In the meantime, Amazon is lobbying for federal legislation that would solve the issue once and for all.

But don't think that Burton is satisfied. "Why the s**t should Amazon skate when we have a state that is shutting down schools, shutting down hospitals, firing teachers, firing cops, firing firemen [and] screwing mental health people?" he asked. "Because they don't want to have a goddamn sales tax like everybody else!"

Burton's so angry with Amazon that he refuses to use the kindle his daughter gave him as a gift. Instead of the electronic reader, he's sticking with books. Besides, says Burton, "you can read it taking a crap" -- unlike those pesky tablets.

Comments

[blusidethoughts]

07:11 PM on 12/29/2011

New study shows direct democracy is winning when it comes to goverment spending:
http://bluside.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/hello-eu-havent-you-seen-the-relationship-between-democracy-and-debt/

Large corporations could highly hijack this and it would reduce debt.

[nfatt1]

10:29 AM on 12/11/2011

The one percent always seem to benefit from , but not pay taxes.

[NamithaSF]

12:00 PM on 12/08/2011

The State of CA takes in huge sums in taxes, overspends, and spends poorly. CA college tuition is going through the roof, yet there is no pension reform for state workers, 12,000+ get 100K+ pa in pensions. CA does not have a legal leg to stand on re. Amazon paying sales tax; it;s interstate commerce.

[mothergrace]

01:01 PM on 12/07/2011

I too am angry with Amazon and will not shop there anymore. I didn't shop there much, but still. Someone told me that they were charged sales tax on Amazon. I called the State Board of Equalization to find out how this could be since Amazon was not supposed to do this right away and they certainly were not handing it over to the state from what I was reading about their agreement with California.

I think the bottom line was that they are supposedly charging on affiliates based in CA but all in all, I could not get a good answer as to whether or not this was the case or if these taxes were being handed over to the state.

I am going to contact Amazon but who knows what nonsense they will come up with.

One statement by the person at the state board was very telling, however. When explaining about when the tax will actually kick in they said, "But who knows what will happen between now and then. Money talks and Amazon has a lot of money."

That is what is also wrong with the initiative process. Money talks over everything else, including the truth and the media does not do nearly enough to point out the true facts of these propositions.

[Brenda Starr]

12:39 AM on 12/07/2011

Proposition 13 needs to be addressed with evidence presented in real numbers. It's not 1978 anymore.

[Apathetic Apostle]

03:37 PM on 12/07/2011

Since I worked helping people reasess their taxes with Prop 8, I can tell you that you have no clue what you are talking about except for maybe the commercial real estate side of the coin. Go look at states like Maryland and what happens to your property taxes when a State needs money.

[Brenda Starr]

12:53 PM on 12/08/2011

Everything within reason.

[macchugsid]

05:25 PM on 12/08/2011

Commercial is the problem. I remember back when it was sold to the people of California. It was being pushed by those commercial people as being for the little folks. I knew a guy that owned a street full of duplex rentals at the time. He bragged about how many hundreds of thousands of dollars he was saving and turned around and raised the rents. If those rentals have stayed in his family they are still paying 1978 taxes. Do you really think they are still charging 1978 rents?

[Daniel Calvert]

08:12 PM on 12/06/2011

How much do we have to pay in taxes in this state? No matter how much the government in our state collects it's never enough and never will be. Let them have the Amazon tax and next year they will want to tax something else. I'm so glad for Prop. 13. I wouldn't be able to afford the property tax if the legislature had their way. We would have even more abandoned properties than we do now.

[360Dunk]

09:02 PM on 12/06/2011

Basically you're saying it's all about you. Because Prop 13 screwed over most ANY homeowner or potential buyer who came into the housing market after the referendum passed. You say you wouldn't be able to afford property tax now - what about the millions who weren't able to buy a house years ago when you did? What about today's younger generation who can't buy because they'd have to pay six or seven thousand dollars a year in tax in addition to their mortgages? Too bad for them?

Of COURSE you're happy about Prop 13...it locks in lower property tax rates for you while giving the shaft to hordes of other homeowners.

[skraeling]

01:31 AM on 12/07/2011

Prop 13 has 'screwed" no one in the residential area....but sure has allowed the commercial property owners and developers to thrive without paying their fair share..Young people and first time home owners believe in instant gratifcation. I pay lower r.e. taxes on my place because I choose to not move up every 7 years which is what the stat is for Cal...other homeowners are paying a lower rate than most other areas in the US and that is a fact...our properties are simply worth more hence the mirage of high taxes....I worked two jobs to buy my house with a 25% down and never regretted it.....I guess I am old school....deal with it....any politician who dares to do away with Prop 13 will ignite a firestorm and it will be their end....

[Todd Dice]

10:28 AM on 12/07/2011

You misunderstand how prop 13 works; it benefits ALL homeowners regardless of when they bought their home. Prop 13 says your property tax cannot raise any higher than 1.5% from the previous year. This prevents you from getting a "surprise" tax bill because the government suddenly says your property is worth mare than it really is.

[monkeyshine67]

09:11 PM on 12/06/2011

How much do we have to pay in taxes? In the case of Amazon - nothing. What does that mean?

Every single small brick and mortar small business trying to carve out a piece for themselves is immediately put at a 7% disadvantage.

Every single one of us has to pay MORE in taxes elsewhere so Amazon and other major on-line retailers like it can pay NOTHING.

Every dollar you spend at online at Amazon takes 100% of that dollar out of state, further hurting California. Every dollar you spend at a major national retailer takes 65% of that dollar out of state - where as if you go down and buy a book, that dollar stays in our communities in California.

You do realize Prop 13 has cause a major imbalance for property tax payers making it virtually impossible for new home owners and providing businesses again another unfair imbalance benefit that new the home owners are being forced to make up?

No, of course you don't know any of this, nor do you care. The big picture is a pain in the ass and too difficult for an obtuse idiot to figure out how it hits your wallet in the more complex ways.

[derrickhoyle]

07:44 PM on 12/06/2011

Give me that f***king petition. I'm going to sign it!

[ScreenName05]

07:42 PM on 12/06/2011

Wow, someone else is starting to talk about the mess created by Prop 13 and subsequent dumb propositions. If people could actually read, and if they could learn to ignore all the marketing, on both sides, and they took a civics/economics course, then the referendum system might work half @ssed.

But we have a lot of people in America (not just CA) who are both ignorant and proud of it. They listen to ding dongs on Television to find out how they should think. And when they do try to use that vacant spot between their ears, it is usually to pick their fantasy football picks.

[360Dunk]

09:06 PM on 12/06/2011

I agree....but I don't think it's so much about the reading and marketing as it is greed. It's more about keeping tax rates low for some while making others pay an exhorbitantly higher rate.

[skraeling]

01:32 AM on 12/07/2011

Don't buy high priced houses if you cannot or will not pay the r.e. tax...

[TaximanZeroOne]

07:23 PM on 12/06/2011

Very funny and yes ... California is f--ked up!

[Jose 58]

07:07 PM on 12/06/2011

California has way too many payouts to union employees that once retired, live better than when they were working. That's a scam and a ripoff and that's why the state is broke.

[TaximanZeroOne]

07:24 PM on 12/06/2011

That's one of many reasons.

[theelephantintheroom]

07:26 PM on 12/06/2011

State payroll and pensions account for about 4 percent of the budget, entitlements account for about 40 percent budget. Perhaps you should rethink what the problem is.

[ScreenName05]

07:48 PM on 12/06/2011

And we have a declining tax base to support our education system because the wealthy have found ways to trade property, and avoid any increase in property taxes over long periods of time - there are multi-million dollar properties in LA that pay property taxes as though those properties were worth $20k. Add to that the increase in prisons and prison costs (It costs $225k to keep one juvenile in detention in Oakland, while the Oakland school district spends $4500 per student), and you start to understand the real problem.

We do not collect enough taxes to pay our bills. And there are a lot of very wealthy people and corporations who avoid almost all taxes, and those same people have convinced the state to spend more money on prisons than on education.

[nhr 215]

06:53 PM on 12/06/2011

"I can link anything to illegal immigration." Hahaha, I love it! I think this state representative must be one of these comment trolls that leave nonsensical anti-immigration rants on articles about the weather, global warming, the price of tea, etc. Its sad that there is such a strong virulent strain but on the bright side, these are old white people and in less than a generation they will be gone. I'm sure when I'm old I'll be bitter about something cultural changing that is totally out of my control....

[Robyn Singleton]

06:18 PM on 12/06/2011

lol..awesome!

[RealistBC]

05:11 PM on 12/06/2011

John Burton is one of the reasons California NEEDS popular referenda. It's to undo the damage sellouts like Burton cause.

[TaximanZeroOne]

07:25 PM on 12/06/2011

Wrong!

[skraeling]

01:38 AM on 12/07/2011

As a long time Californian I agree....in my life it has been Unruh, Brown and Burton...the last two did more harm than we will ever know....they plundered the system and destroyed our faith in state government...

[Tabre]

04:59 PM on 12/06/2011

"Then, the administra­tive costs associated with education, police, prison guards and just about every other government agency is out of control, both with salaries and pensions."

oneeasyrider's comment above is an area, Governor Brown has not touched. I have spoken with a CA representative about pensions. During the gubernatorial debates, commentator Tom Brokaw asked about pensions over $300 grand a year. The representative told me that was nothing as we should see the number of pensions paid by Californians in excess of $700 grand a year.

My question is why should anyone whose pension is paid by taxpayers be that high? There should be a cap on pensions in excess of $100 grand. Thanks to Brown's legislation years ago and Unions who support him, California is struggling to pay what is currently needed since high pensions are paid.

I think we need an initiative to limit pension amounts. Oh, let's make it retroactive on all government paid pensions.

California is truly business unfriendly. Some of our permit fees have doubled for the coming year. We pay permits to two groups who contradict each other. One hand of the government doesn't know what the other hand is doing and we get screwed.

[speedntktz]

05:30 PM on 12/06/2011

I agree with all but your last paragraph. Both government hands know what the other is doing as each one of them is open looking for a payoff from business absent of any benefit to the POTUS.

[Tabre]

05:41 PM on 12/06/2011

Wrong. We had a permit to build something. When the person from one of the groups came to inspect the final product, he didn't realize the other group over rode their permit. These are specific government regulatory groups in California. Increased permit fees pay for their employees, but it is not called a tax. We NEED the permits to do business.

[RealistBC]

05:48 PM on 12/06/2011

And when do we hold private pensions to the same standard? You purchase a product or service, you are also contributing to an executive pension fund. Do you not think that if these executives had to contribute more out of pocket to their own pensions (like you expect public sector employees to do) that the cost of said product or service would be noticeably lower like you think your taxes should be?

[Tabre]

06:02 PM on 12/06/2011

I don't expect public sector employees to contribute more, but where can you retire after twenty years from a private sector job and get a pension for life? Some changes are needed. Not all get a pension for life, but I do know a few who do after 20 years in government jobs. Some I hear get a pension even after a year or so of employment. That falls in the political arena. I lost my investments like others, but I am not having the taxpayers refund those investments.

We all have a choice to not buy from specific companies or businesses. I do it all the time.

[NAMU2010]

04:29 PM on 12/06/2011

Prop 13 is what killed CA schools and they will never recover as long as property taxes remain so low. I'm all for making sure seniors don't get taxed out of their homes, but for all the others, they need to increase the tax.

[RatPack78]

04:49 PM on 12/06/2011

Per capita, CA ranks 14th out of the 50 states as having the highest property taxes. How do the other 36 states manage?

[RealistBC]

05:48 PM on 12/06/2011

They use Texas School Books.

[Amakar]

06:41 PM on 12/06/2011

Raising other taxes, which California can't do without a supermajority. California responded by raising fees, but we blocked that with another initiative.

Now they respond by raising fines, and seeking out more tickets to give. Last year late registration was $25, now its $50 and they circled my block every day for the first two weeks of the year giving multiple tickets to the same car.

I also found myself paying $225 in court costs on a supposed $100 speeding ticket. 325 milked from me for 5 over... it's getting rediculous

[Tabre]

05:32 PM on 12/06/2011

Extremely high pensions also kill CA schools.