State Budget Office Releases Report on I-960

The Office of Financial Management has produced its assessment of the potential fiscal impacts of Initiative 960. (Hat tip to Remy Trupin at the Budget and Policy Center.)

Initiative 960 would result in added costs to prepare ten-year cost projections for proposed state tax and fee increases, to notify legislators and the public about proposed revenue legislation, and to conduct advisory votes on tax increases approved by the Legislature. Costs are estimated to be up to $1.8 million a year, including $1.2 million for local election expenses.

Apparently thinking that's a very big number, the folks at the Budget and Policy Center headline their release: "I-960 will cost taxpayers millions." Maybe I've become jaded, but that seems like an estimate Initiative backers can live with. I know - "a million here, a million there" - but I'd suspect the opposition to 960 worries much more about the spending the initiative prevents than the spending it mandates.