The Time Has Come
The Time has Come. California is the 11th economy in the world, the nation's leader in environmental legislation. It is also governed by a State Constitution that dates from 1879, a 2/3rds majority vote for passing a state budget, and facing a $21.3 billion deficit... What is to be done?
California, the eleventh largest economy in the world, the leader of the country in legislation to reduce Green House Gases, the home of some of the most innovative entrepreneurs on the planet, is governed by a Constitution that dates from 1879.
The population of the state in 1879 was less than a million people, now it is over 38 million and more ethnically and economically diverse than could have been imagined. We export most of the nation’s fresh fruits and vegetables, our ports are some of the largest in the world, we are the center of high technology and innovation – Google, Apple, Silicon Valley. But we are saddled with a constitution and set of governmental processes and procedures that date from an agricultural and mining era, where we used hydraulic jets to mine gold, creating vast waste lands and pollution, and we exported cow hides and tallow.
Over time, using the referendum, recall and initiative processes that were part of the reforms of the Progressive Era to combat the centralized power of the railroads and the cartels, California voters have signaled that they want their government to be responsive, without doing the work – term limits, 2/3rds majority vote, ballot-allocated budgets, while incurring debt for future generations.
One-third of our elected representatives can stymie the legislature passing a budget. One-third is not a representative majority. This is the tyranny of the minority.
Term-limits means that elected officials spend an inordinate amount of time raising money for the next election, figuring out what the next office will be they can run for, and turning over the deep expertise needed to really govern, to special interests, who, you can be sure, know their own business very well.
A 2/3rds majority vote for any new fees or taxes at the local level, as well as for the state budget means that the public good is not voted for, and state government remains underfunded, and unresponsive. It means California’s educational system remains 48th among the 50 states, that higher education costs are increasing beyond simple people’s means, even while the business community is crying for a better educated workforce.
Californians have twisted state and local governments into a pretzel of diminished means with more and more responsibilities that they cannot fulfill. For California to regain its intelligence, quality of life and leadership, the government’s constitution must be rewritten, and many of our ballot box initiatives need to be revisited.
- Proposition 13, while popular among those who have low property taxes is unfair and retrograde. At a minimum, we need a split roll tax where businesses pay their fair share.
- Proposition 218 should be repealed, ushering a simple majority vote for normal tax increases the government we elect, may need. If the voters disagree, they can choose different representatives.
- Term limits are a sign of a lazy democracy. Instead of an arbitrary term limit, voters need to use their judgment and elect different candidates if they are unhappy.
- Two-thirds majority vote for a state budget simply makes no sense at all in a democratic state. It is profoundly undemocratic.
The referendum, recall and initiative processes need to be entirely revised, or eliminated. They are used for pernicious purposes, and require enormous amounts of money to mount. This cannot be democratic as most of us have not the means to even begin to dream about placing something on the ballot. Moreover, most of us are not legislators, we should elect the best and the brightest and work with them directly to shape the legislation we would like, not circumvent democratic representative institutions. Let us instead revitalize our democratic institutions of representative government. Perhaps we should expand the legislature so our representatives don’t represent so many people, perhaps we should rethink voting and institute state-wide rank voting as they have in San Francisco. Maybe we should have partisan local elections.
All that is sure is that a constitution of 1879 no longer is adequate to the twenty-first century. Democracies should evolve over time, and California’s must if it is to maintain its standing as a place of innovation, high quality of life, extraordinary environment and wonderful diversity. It is up to us, the time has come.
Date Posted: 5/20/2009