Posted on 07/18/2004 10:10:45 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
hmmm
All the usual suspects.........put them all on part time.....and bi-year like in TX.
excerpted and linked from the Bakersfield Californian
Stalled budget makes Schwarzenegger consider reforms
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (SMW) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is learning first-hand what Republican and Democratic experts have been saying for years: It's the system, more than the governor, that makes responsible and timely budgeting in California so difficult to accomplish.
For all his star power and bipartisan appeal, the governor is almost three weeks into the fiscal year and can't get lawmakers to agree to a budget deal, even after adding to the state's structural deficit to meet demands of lawmakers from both parties.
Talks dissolved last week over tangential partisan disputes driven by businesses, trial lawyers and labor unions.
Public policy advocates say Schwarzenegger should embrace his frustration with the way things are, go directly to voters and ask them to adopt ballot initiatives that could ease future budget gridlock.
"It's the kind of thing he may have to do - to take some of these issues to the people," said Leon Panetta, who was President Clinton's budget director and chief of staff and now runs a public policy institute in Monterey, Calif.
"I think Schwarzenegger has a license from the California voters as a result of the recall to make waves."
Unicameral Legislature?
But getting people talking about things like this is positive at this point.
I wish he would release his CPR now and add fuel to the fire. ;-)
You can take your open ballot primary Arnold, and stick it where the sun don't shine.
It would be better to revist and toss Reynolds v. Sims. The problem with the State Senate is that it used to represent the counties in much the way that the US Senate represents the States (especially before the 17th Amendment). That ruling was in direct violation of the Article IV guarantee of a Republican form of government.
Does anybody in American actually understand the meaning of a "republican form of government" any more after being force fed with democracy, democracy, democracy ad infinitum?
"You can take your open ballot primary Arnold, and stick it where the sun don't shine."
THAT NEEDS REPEATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You've gotta wonder. In fact, I would prefer that boards of supervisors select a single county representative. People don't understand that with your county officers selecting the Senators, local elections actually matter more and representation improves. So does communication from the local to the State level.
Thsi would be a HUGE improvement!
Thsi would be a HUGE improvement!
Do that with the feds too! Let them be in session every two years. For 6 months. Then they go home. It does not matter if some of them are there at all anyway. Just consider the case of John Kerry. He has not been in the US Senate for over a year. Didn't matter. Which was about the same as when he WAS there ALL the time.
"They would be more dominated by big business and lobbyists and the infrastructure that surrounds the Capitol," she says. "I think that's not necessarily a good solution."
If the pols are there part time and can't make a career of the legislature, how would that increase the lobby strength?
I really don't get the lobby principle, obviously.
Go Arnold!
As a former California resident, I can tell you that the legislature in that state is corrupt and arrogant even by politician standards. But the problem is gerrymandering and special interest money (ACLU-style liberalism of the state's 'Rat party makes it worse). While a part-time legislature sounds appealing, California is just too populous and too complicated (economically and ethnically) for such an option. Remember, the population is approaching 35 million.
Uh, just which new laws are we in need of ?
"Uh, just which new laws are we in need of ?"
The real question should be, would they have enough time to void all the existing laws that shouldn't exist?
We don't need any new ones!
Here where I live, the county supervisors are all "at large", rather then being elected by district. The county is so small that it doesn't matter much.
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