Voters can send different, sometimes conflicting messages with the outcome of ballot questions.
The message voters send over time is even more difficult to interpret. Perhaps the best example was the juxtaposition between the voters' decision in 1998 to launch a highway and ferry improvement program with bonds paid for by the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, followed the very next year by the decision to eliminate the tax. Voters have said both spend more money and cut taxes at the state and local levels in the past few years. And that's why it's important that voters take a consistent view of Initiative 728 and local school levies. I-728, approved last November by 71.7 percent of the state's voters, directs additional money to the state's school districts for class size reductions and for school construction.