Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? Today we are going to the Zeroes, that fun-filled decade that brought you such treasures as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Arrested Development, the unitary executive, and the governator.

First stop: 2005. As part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election initiatives, a spending cap was placed on the ballot, Prop 76. It went down in flames, 62-38.

Next stop, 2009. As part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second special election, a very similar spending cap was placed on the May 2009 ballot, Prop 1A. It went down in flames even worse than Prop 76, losing 65-35.

After a while you would assume Sacramento got the message – Californians do not want a spending cap.

So what do we find in the 2010 budget deal? Yeah, another spending cap. The Assembly just approved putting it on the March 2012 ballot as part of the overall deal.

The logic here must be that the March 2012 electorate will be overwhelmingly Republican, since Obama won’t have a primary challenger (though we might want to drum one up just so we can drive Dems to the March 2012 polls), therefore a spending cap is more likely to pass. And Democrats, looking at the poor record of spending cap ballot measures, probably figured this was something they could beat again.

Still, it’s a sign that Sacramento hasn’t really heard the public’s resounding rejection of a spending cap, which would ensure that the $60 billion or so cut from the state’s budget since 2007 will never, ever be restored, even when economic recovery finally comes.

It’s also a good argument for preventing ballot initiatives from appearing on presidential primary ballots. In fact, until the 1970s statewide ballot initiatives only appeared on November general election ballots. Might be worth reconsidering.