Our Proposed Budget
Big Money, Special Interest Politics, Corporate Corruption, Influence Peddling, is the problem.
Our budget proposal will be in two parts. Phase One is our start-up-phase. In Phase One, in order to get The Center started, we have worked out a bare-bone-budget relying on volunteer workers and part-time paid help that will be working out of their homes. Initially, rather than taking on the expense of purchasing our own telephone and Internet voting system, we will subscribe to a telephone and Internet voting service that uses a system that we will then purchase for Phase Two of our operations. It is hard to determine how long this phase will take, but it will be completed when we have fully demonstrated our usefulness the community of Ithaca and Tompkins County. This will occur whenever an issue becomes controversial enough to involve the community at large. For example, recently the community became embroiled over lake-source-cooling. Cornell University obtained approval to draw cold water from Cayuga Lake to use for air-conditioning their buildings. There was a hot and extensive debate over what this would do to the ecology of the lake. No one was clear on where the public stood on this issue. Proponents of the project accused the opposition as being a vocal minority. The opposition accused the proponents as not reflecting the will of the people. Both sides accused the local newspaper as being biased. If our system was in place, an initiative would have most certainly been introduced; and, in the end, after much debate, the will of the people would have been expressed. In this case, the old adage “seeing is believing” applies; and once we demonstrated to the public how easy it is to clear the air of the subterfuge and rhetoric that clouds the issue of public support; and we give the community the means to participate in the governing process and become citizen lawmakers, we are on our way. At this point, it is reasonable to expect the community to support and sustain our efforts, locally; and, if they do, we will go on to Phase Two.
In Phase Two, we will purchase our own telephone and Internet voting system. The telephone and Internet voting system that we will purchase will be able to handle over a million voters at one time. The company that will sell us the system will install it, train us in its use, maintain it, and update it as necessary. There are two reasons why it is necessary for us to purchase our own system. One, it will be more economical in the long run. Two, the system is more secure if it is administered and supervised by our own Board of Trustees who have been elected by our popular assembly through a proportional representation election in which the five candidates who receive the most votes are elected to the board. Each of the board members has an equal vote and a private code key, and none of them can enter the system without all of them entering the system at the same time, and anyone of them can demand an audit of the system.
Success will also incur is own expense. In Phase Two, we expect to expand our operations to other cities and counties in the state. As we do that we expect to lay the groundwork for establishing ourselves nationally and reach out to other states. As our base of operations expands, we see the need to establish a core staff of paid workers to provide a stable base for our operations. We also anticipate a need for a suitable rental space for our offices and meeting rooms. It is unrealistic to expect our volunteers and paid staff to work out of their homes beyond the initial starting stage. In addition, as we expand, the costs of registering and communicating essential information to new and potential members will increase. At some point in Phase Two, we should be able to reach a critical mass where are successes state-wide and nationally will be the source of added financial resources, and the money will come from the people who benefit most from this movement, the American people.
Phase One Budget | |
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| Set Up Costs for First Year | Population 100,000 |
| | |
| 1. One Year Subscription for Telephone and Internet Voting System | 10,000.00 |
| 2. Web Site | 3,000.00 |
| 3. Telephone VoIP | 200.00 |
| 4. Office Equipment and Furniture | 8,000.00 |
| | |
| Total Cost of Set Up for First Year | 21,200.00 |
| | |
| Operating Costs for First Year | Population 100,000 |
| | |
| 1. Registration and Communication of Information | 10,000.00 |
| 2. Web-Site Maintenance | 1,500.00 |
| 3. Office Supplies | 1,000.00 |
| 4. Telephone and Internet Voting Fees | 1,000.00 |
| 5. Manager | 10,000.00 |
| 6. Administrative Assistant/ Hotline Operator | 5,000.00 |
| 7. Misc. | 1,000.00 |
| | |
| Total Operating Costs for First Year | 30,000.00 |
| | |
Phase Two Budget | |
| | |
| Set Up Costs for Year Two | Population 100,000 |
| | |
| 1. Purchase of Internet and Telephone Voting System | 50,000.00 |
| 2. Web-Site Upgrade | 2,000.00 |
| 3. Office Equipment and Furniture | 10,000.00 |
| | |
| Total Cost of Set Up for Year Two | 62,000.00 |
| | |
| Operating Costs for Year Two | Population 100,000 |
| | |
| 1. Maintenance of the System | 12,000.00 |
| 2. Telephone Voting Lines Fee | 2,000.00 |
| 3. Registaration and Communication of Information | 20,000.00 |
| 4. Web-Site Maintenance | 2,000.00 |
| 5. Office Supplies | 2,000.00 |
| 6. Manager | 50,000.00 |
| 7. Office Assistant/Hotline Operator | 20,000.00 |
| 8. Misc. | 1,000.00 |
| | |
| Total Operating Costs for Year Two | 118,000.00 |
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Summary
From this study, it should be obvious that an effective and efficient voting system can be put in place that will express the will of the people. It is also clear that the cost of this system should not be prohibitive to any group of citizens who truly believe in democracy and believe that you can’t have true democracy without citizen lawmakers.
Conclusion
Big Money, Special Interest Politics, Corporate Corruption, Influence Peddling, is the problem.
Will it work?
Ultimately, that is the question. Can we get the American people behind this movement, and will they participate? Judging form the 24 states that presently have the initiative, referendum, and recall process in one form or another, the answer is, yes. The initiative, referendum, and recall process is more popular now in these states than it was at the height of its popularity in the early 1900s when the process was initially conceived and implemented as law; and it is more popular now than it was in the late twenties and the early thirties when America was in the midst of a depression, and the American people were looking to the initiative, referendum, and recall process to bring about the necessary political and economic reform and set the agenda for the New Deal.
If this is so, you might ask, why go through all this process of setting up a telephone and Internet voting system? Why go through the process of setting up popular assemblies throughout the country. Why not simply educate the voters on the need for reform in states that do not have this process? Why not organize a popular front movement to lobby the legislatures in theses states to amend their constitutions and make the initiative, referendum, and recall a part of the political process?
The answer to these questions is apparent in one of the first premises of power. Those who have it don’t want to give it up. This is evident in the states that have the initiative, referendum, and recall in one form or another. With the recent popularity of the initiative, referendum, and recall process, there has been a concerted effort by the legislatures in those states to limit the power of direct and participatory democracy. Added to that is the simple fact that incumbents receive the lion’s share of campaign contributions, and they are re-elected an overwhelming number of times. Can we then expect an incumbent in power to voluntarily give up this power and give away this advantage to the powerless? You don’t have to have a Ph.D. or special knowledge in this subject to know the answer to that question. The answer is, no. Power will not yield to public opinion polls and popular front movements that lobby for reform, especially when they threaten the special interests, global corporations, and financial institutions that hold our representatives bodies in hostage. Nor can we look to third party movements in a winner-take-all, two-party system, except when those third parties look to the initiative, referendum, and recall process as a means of furthering their agenda.
There is only one power in this country that can defeat the anti-democratic forces at work in America today and that is the power of the American people to unite as we have in the past and become the giants who built this country. We need to create a feat accomplished by organizing a nation wide Internet and telephone voting system in which we participate as citizens lawmakers in the initiative, referendum, and recall process. If we do this, if we persist and build from city to city, county to county, and state to state: we can achieve our ultimate goal of passing an advisory national initiative that will inform our representatives in Congress, in no uncertain terms, that we the people of the United States want them to pass an amendment to the Constitution of the United States making the initiative, referendum, an recall process a part of the law of the land. When we do this, we will be holding up a model of true democracy like a mirror to our representatives in Congress and saying, “See, this is who we are. This is why we are great. This is why this country is great.” This is why Thomas Jefferson’s said, “Whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the people will interpose and set them to right.” - Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:322
Copyright 2005 Marcello Tino
The Road to Freedom
The Center for True Democracy
(607) 273-3644
19 Baker Hill Road
Townhouse Number Eight
Freeville, New York 13068
mtino@twcny.rr.com