Oct. 14, 2009
California voters have the worst opinion ever — ever — of how well the Legislature is doing its job, according to a Field Poll conducted for the Sacramento Bee and released this week.
Only 13 percent of those polled approved of lawmakers’ job performance.
What planet does that 13 percent live on? That’s what I wanna know.
Because, seriously, no one can think this Legislature (Governor included) is doing anything but dancing around problems and playing games.
We haven’t made any real headway on any single substantive issue in years — decades.
In good economic years, lawmakers spend like drunken sailors; in bad they borrow to the hilt. Even though they do it every year the same way — and they know that’s what they’re going to do — they still can’t pass a budget on time.
Local governments get more unfunded mandates, state programs roll on in perpetuity regardless of performance and the political parties burrow deeper into their respective bunkers every year.
It’s enough to make your teeth hurt.
I called Kern’s representatives to get their opinions of this low opinion of them.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, never called back but all of our Republican representatives had plenty to say.
Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, sent an email wondering, as I did, how the public’s approval rating could be so high.
I got the same response from Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, who thought the Legislature, himself included, should get a zero.
“What you’re seeing now is the total collapse of state government,” he said. “It can be fixed, but I don’t see the will to do it.”
Freshman Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, R-Wasco, agreed.
“Can you blame them?” he asked of the Field Poll respondents’ low opinion of state politicians.
“It’s broken,” was his refrain for what he’s encountered since winning his hard-fought seat in 2008.
Things are so bad, in fact, he told me he has some “hard decisions” to make about whether he’ll seek re-election.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people up there, some have been doing budgets for more than 30 years, and they all say this is the worst its ever been.”
Politicians are out of touch on both sides of the aisle, he said, though all his examples cast Democrats as the biggest abusers. They shunt aside all Republican ideas regardless of merit, play games with office space (Gilmore still doesn’t have a Bakersfield office), and punish Democrats who don’t heed the leadership lockstep, he said.
The salt in the wound for Gilmore, a former Marine and Highway patrolman, is that nothing starts on time in Sacramento.
“I’m so frustrated I could write a book,” he said.
When I asked for his thoughts about solutions, he listed a number of things that a group called California Forward (www.caforward.org) is working to put on the November ballot in 2010.
The non-partisan group wants to create a ballot measure with legislative backing that would tackle three areas: the budget process, term limits and redefining the state/local relationship.
They’ve met with legislative leaders and had positive feedback.
Now they’re hoping Senate and Assembly committees will commence hearings on their measure — perhaps as early as next month.
Highlights include:
• Reducing the two-thirds majority needed to pass a budget (while retaining the two-thirds required for tax increases) as long as all other budget reforms are accepted — such as a multi-year pay-as-you-go budget so legislators are forced to identify a funding source for any new spending — and using one-time revenues for debt, not program funding.
• Cap the total time anyone can hold elected office to 12 years, divided however they choose between the houses (except current legislators) and require lawmakers to spend part of the year in their districts.
• Give local governments legal ownership over specific funds so the state can’t take that money and allow local governments to share funding and even consolidate districts where it makes sense.
OK, it’s not as sexy as “Throw the bums out!” But Cal Forward’s ideas have long-term appeal.
It’s much like Proposition 11 (the redistricting measure approved last year) which is getting under way. Ultimately that redistricting should create more competitive districts that don’t always go to party hardliners.
Another bright spot is the open primary, which voters will have the chance to approve in June of 2010. That would allow Democrats and Republicans to vote in each other’s primaries, again, potentially reducing ideological polarization and the parties’ iron grip, both of which have all but killed pragmatic consensus building to solve problems.
The silver lining around that abysmal approval rating is that we the people finally have the chance and the tools to push for reform.
Now, if we can only keep legislators from snuffing out the light.
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