If regular people want to directly change a law, it's usually expensive and difficult to put a voter initiative on the ballot (if it's even possible at all; in many places it isn't). And if voters don't approve that initiative, it's either over for good or it takes years to raise the money, gather the signatures, etc., to do the whole thing over again.
But if it's something government officials want that requires voter approval -- like a sales or property tax increase for this or that purpose -- they just put the thing up for a vote over and over again (with scarier stories about the consequences of not giving them their way each time) until they get the result they want (after which, see the first paragraph for what it takes to undo that result).
I'm not necessarily sure it should be easier than it is to do "voter initiatives." But it should certainly be harder than it is to do "government officials' initiatives."
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