I agree with you. As Mark Twain said, "When the (California) legislature is in session, no man's life, liberty, or property is safe". A part-time legislature would make us safer from power-hungry politicians and the nanny-staters.
In Texas we have a 140 day time limit for the regular biennial session, but the governor can call an unlimited number of special sessions that can last up to 30 days each. This puts pressure on legislators to concentrate on important issues rather than playing political games. Also, since the regular session ends in May of the year after an election, there is no incentive to pass political gothcha legislation, because the next election is 18 months away. In between sessions, the legislators actually have to live back in their districts not in the capitol city. They actually have to live under the laws they enact and hear from their constituents in their home districts.