7thriv

Lots of commentary from outsiders regarding the defeat of the budget propositions on Tuesday. "Ungovernable" comes up a lot, but I consider the phrase "feckless Big Government political class refusing to put the state on a politically or fiscally sustainable path" to be a better descriptor.

There's also a lot of commentary supporting the convening of a constitutional convention to reform or amend the many procedural hoops that make CA governance so unwieldy. This article in The Economist is typical: California: the Ungovernable State

Many others, however, now believe that California needs to start from scratch, with a fully-fledged constitutional convention. California’s current constitution rivals India’s and Alabama’s for being the longest and most convoluted in the world, and is several times longer than America’s. It has been amended or revised more than 500 times and now, with the cumulative dross of past voter initiatives incorporated, is a document that assures chaos.

Calls for a new constitution have resurfaced throughout the past century, but never went far. That changed last August, as the budget negotiations were once again going off the rails, when Mr Wunderman of the Bay Area Council renewed the call for a convention and received an astonishing outpouring of support. Mr Schwarzenegger has called a constitutional convention “a brilliant idea” and thinks it is “the right way to go”. (The new constitution would take effect well after he leaves office.) Most encouragingly, says Mr Wunderman, nobody, not even the so-called special interests, has yet come out against a convention

This may or may not be a good idea, but I have to say I am not aware of any popular groundswell for a state consitutional convention, Mr. Wunderman's claims notwithstanding. The problem with a constitutional convention is that it could just as easily become yet another staging ground for progressive activists to capture favors and $$. Wunderman has some convuluted scheme whereby the conventioneers would be drawn from county jury pools, but that would do no more good than convening a Frank Luntz focus group. No, this is an initiative that needs to start with a narrowly focused political movement similar to the one that gave us the Recall Election. It started, you will remember, with wealthy political pro Darrell Issa funding a petition drive and directing the campaign message, not a "let a 100 flowers bloom"style direct democracy. A constitutonal convention requires leadership, not political buck passing to The People.

Just as a thought experiment, we have convened the Free Will California Constitutional Convention in an effort to work through some of the issues presented. While we were not able do a comprehensive job (we lost our quorum when the Senate Pro Tem became fussy from gas), we did get a good start:

1. just as a preliminary matter, cancellation of the last, say, 5 years worth of boondoggles, starting with the $75 billion high speed rail project. We can't afford them. If CA is going to get a new Constitution, it should also free itself from as much budget weight as possible.

2. take the drawing of legislative districts away from the Legislature.

3. end the use of propositions to pass bonds and spending measures. Those are properly the subject of our representatives. Let them vote on this stuff.

4. Make it a lot harder to get propositions on the ballot. No more legislative propositions, for one thing. And increase the signature requirement for petitions to 2 million. Any proposition that passes can be voided by the legislature. Any proposition requiring any public expenditures must contain sunset clauses.

5. In fact, make the following trade: in exchange for giving up the 2/3 rule for passing tax increases and budgets, create mandatory sunset provisions 10 years out for everything.

6. return CA to its core competence: education, law enforcement, prisons, running elections, etc. no more duplicating the work of the feds. That means, for example, no more Air Resources Board.

7. Protect Prop. 13, but also take away all of the things that cause property values to artificially skyrocket - overly restrictive zoning rules, environmental set asides, rent control, etc.