AN INSULT TO BALLOT INITIATIVES.

Byline: CHRIS WEINKOPF

IDEALLY, state ballot initiatives are a genuine exercise in direct democracy. Like recall, they're one of the great legacies of California's Progressive Era, a way for the people to make an unresponsive or obstinate government serve them. And they have a proud past - the taxpayer revolt of Proposition 13, the elimination of racial preferences with Proposition 209, the advent of term limits under Proposition 140.

But take unscrupulous special interests and a politically disinterested public, and initiatives can undermine democracy every bit as easily as they can embolden it.

Such is the case with Proposition 56, the euphemistically titled ``Budget Accountability Act,'' which will appear on the March 2 ballot. The initiative would make it easier for California's Legislature to raise taxes - not that you'd ever know that from the way it's being sold.

The campaign's TV commercials feature politicians either dawdling or goofing off in their chambers, defying California's constitutional deadline for an on-time budget. The ads promise an end to the shenanigans, bringing ``budget accountability'' and ``legislative responsibility'' to a state that's long known neither.

They also invoke all the wondrous deeds Proposition 56 would accomplish if passed: An end to partisan gridlock! No more cuts to schools and health care!

Watching the spots, it seems as though Proposition 56 could do just about everything - everything, that is, but raise your taxes.

That's the detail the Proposition 56 ads conveniently fail to mention. Truth be told, the measure isn't so much about making politicians work as much as it is about helping politicians pick taxpayers' pockets.

And with that deliberate act of deception, Proposition 56 officially becomes this election's most shamelessly cynical campaign - the proposition whose organizers seem to think the best way to sell the public on their vision of government is to lie about it. Every election has at least one such initiative, and they're the scourge of an otherwise noble democratic process.

Bankrolled by the public-employee unions that profit when taxes go up and government gets bigger, Proposition 56 would lower the legislative threshold for approving a budget and raising taxes from a two-thirds vote in both houses to a mere 55 percent vote. That, in turn, would empower Democrats, who own sizable majorities in both houses, to raise taxes without the support of the Republican minority, which has doggedly resisted hikes over the last few years.

For the time being, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could block the increases with a veto, but if and when a Democrat becomes governor again, it would become open season on taxpayers. Just last year, Sacramento Democrats proposed some $28 billion in new taxes on just about everything, from wood and electricity to bottled water and diapers. It was the two-thirds rule, more than any other factor, that spared taxpayers from the financial onslaught.

Yes, there are other provisions in Proposition 56, worthwhile ones at that. The initiative would dock legislators' pay for every day they're overdue on the budget, and force them to stay in Sacramento until the job is done. But those measures are just window-dressing. The heart of the initiative - and the reason it's attracted such hefty special-interest funding - is tax hikes.

But the campaign's ads and promotional materials strenuously downplay the tax matter, on the rare occasion they mention it at all. Instead, they opt for the half-truth - a tried and tested form of campaigning.

Californians have been duped before.

In November 2000, the voters approved Proposition 34, which promised strict campaign-finance regulations, while actually weakening those already on the books. That same day, Californians also backed Proposition 39, which promised to protect taxpayers with a tough requirement that certain bond measures receive at least 55 percent of the public's support at the polls - never mind that taxpayers were already protected with a tougher, 66 percent requirement, one that Proposition 39 successfully scrapped.

Supporters of Proposition 56 are betting that the same formula will pay off for them. Rather than selling their agenda on its merits, they're selling it through obfuscations.

If it works, California taxpayers and yet more of their money may soon be parted. And the initiative system will be robbed, once again, of its very integrity.