CA: How Wannabe Govs Stand on State Constitution Do-Over

CalBuzz ^ | 5/21 | Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine

[NormsRevenge]

Meg Whitman embraced the call for a constitutional convention by an influential business group Wednesday, while Republican gubernatorial rival Steve Poizner scoffed at the idea as “one more excuse” for Sacramento politicians.

...

One day after California voters (well, about a quarter of them who bothered to participate) delivered a deafening roar of disapproval to Capitol electeds by overwhelmingly rejecting a propositional package of alleged budget reforms, the political atmosphere crackled with the lexicon of political change, as vows to “overhaul” and “restructure” a “failed system” and a “broken government” echoed throughout the state.

In Sacramento, the corporate good government group Bay Area Council formally unveiled their plan to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of revamping state government, the most sweeping proposal put forth on a day that politicians devoted to recalibrating California’s political zeitgeist.

“If ever there was a tipping point in history, this is it,” Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman told a Sacramento news conference, apparently figuring that if ever there was a day for rhetorical excess, this was it.

Wunderman brought along state senator Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, who said he would carry legislation to try to push the Legislature into convening a convention; if that fails, the council is prepared to mount an initiative campaign to do the job. ..

“We think it is undeniable that California’s government suffers from drastic dysfunction – our financing system is bankrupt, our prisons overflow, our water system teeters on collapse, our once proud schools are criminally poor, our democracy produces ideologically-extreme legislators that can pass neither budget nor reforms, and we have no recourse in the system to right these wrongs.”

[NormsRevenge]

Change for the sake of change is not change.. it is stupidity magnified , imo..

The Bay Area Council referenced in this piece is nothing more than a front org. for the same self-serving elitists that helped get us in this mess.

They are part of a network of NGOs/thinktanks and such (including the New America Foundation) that espouse we need to do this and do that yet in the end, their backers are the ones who will come out of any change more powerful and likely to get richer than anyone they are supposedly helping climb the rungs of the ladder of success.

[uncommonsense]

I’ve got an idea - elect more Democrats. It’s working really, really well at the national level.

[handy old one]

The problem could not be the politician’s so it must be the constitution that is wrong so lets just change it the way we want. OH BOY ARE WE IN FOR BIG PROBLEMS!!

[ElkGroveDan]

There’s nothing wrong with our Constitution. The problem has been caused by single-party control of the spending levers for the past 11 years. Now that the voters are paying attention that will likely be fixed post-haste.

[NormsRevenge]

Now that the voters are paying attention that will likely be fixed post-haste.

—

The voters?
paying attention?
almost 1/4th of them bothered to vote ..

make that the non-comatose ;-)

[absalom01]

Think they mainly want to get rid of the 2/3 majority required to raise taxes?

Yeah, me too.

[NormsRevenge]

That and Prop. 13.

[Reagan69]

“We think it is undeniable that California’s government suffers from drastic dysfunction – our financing system is bankrupt, our prisons overflow, our water system teeters on collapse, our once proud schools are criminally poor................................................... ............................ .............
SEND THEM BACK TO THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN !

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The politicians and State liberals have but two goals:(a) eliminate the proposition 13 restrictions on raising property taxes; (b) eliminate the 2/3 requirement to pass a budget. Once the aforementioned are eliminated they can tax to their little hearts content.

[ElkGroveDan]

Trust me on this one. The people who voted Tuesday included a whole lot of folks who don’t usually get out. The ones who stayed who were largely liberals.

[Joan Kerrey]

our financing system is bankrupt, our prisons overflow, our water system teeters on collapse, our once proud schools are criminally poor, our democracy produces ideologically-extreme legislators that can pass neither budget nor reforms, and we have no recourse in the system to right these wrongs.” ---------------------- The problem is not the constitution. It's the cockroaches we allow to run the government. They simply can not stop spending foolishly and rubber stamping union's wish lists. California's legislators think governing is all about spending and nothing else. A good start at cleaning house would be to break the public sector unions. Once unions are busted reform can take place but not until then.

[hughesm1]

I’ll add to that if the State of California would stop bending over backwards paying benefits to ILLEGALS, they wouldn’t have the massive deficit they currently have.