Straight shooting

Score one for plain words in California politics. A Sacramento judge is stepping in to rewrite the misleading words that Attorney General Xavier Becerra used to summarize a gas tax repeal now making the signature-gathering rounds.

The fed-up judge is going after the partisan sleight of hand that attorneys general use to confuse voters and aid partisan causes in the way they write the summaries that sit atop signaturegathering petitions and the ballot if they qualify. Depending on the spin, the title and summary can undercut or boost a brewing campaign. It’s an artful dodge that past attorneys general from both parties have used for decades.

There’s no better example than the latest issue, an initiative sponsored by Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Huntington Beach Republican and candidate for governor next year. He’s hoping to tap into voter dislike of higher taxes by repealing a recently enacted gas tax. The $5 billion package passed the Legislature and was signed by the governor in April. It’s due to take effect in January, raising pump prices and registration fees for road repairs and better transit.

To be clear, the repeal is a bad idea, considering the overwhelming need for better highways, bridges and the like. But that’s not the issue here. Becerra is shading the explanatory language to sink the repeal, rather than give voters an evenhanded summation.

The attorney general’s wording is “misleading” to the point where “an ordinary, reasonable elector, who is otherwise unfamiliar with the initiative, would not be able to discern what the initiative would do,” wrote Judge Timothy Frawley of Sacramento County Superior Court. The words “tax” and “fees” are missing from the summary, though those levies are the entire point of the would-be ballot measure.

In the absence of fair wording from Becerra’s office, the judge said he’d write the summary and title himself. His summary for the initiative puts it bluntly and plainly so voters know what they’re getting: “Repeals recently enacted gas and diesel taxes and vehicle registration fees.”

The judge’s action is entirely deserved. But contrived explanations may appear again as long as summarizing rests in political hands. This latest dispute should push lawmakers to come up with a fairer way to devise ballot wording.