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Fix California? Here are a few ideas

July 29th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Here’s the Cliff Notes version. Follow the link to read the entire op ed. Thank you again L.A. Times:

The state’s Constitution needs a rewrite — and the federal Constitution should be the model.
By Tom Karako
July 26, 2009

If this year’s budget quagmire in Sacramento has you thinking there must be a better way, there is. To the extent that California is ungovernable today, it is partly because its legislative and executive branches are too weak and dysfunctional to resist entrenched special interests and non-elected bureaucracies. Fixing these problems requires constitutional change. It won’t be easy, but the time has come to do it.

Over the last 130 years, California’s Constitution has assumed the size of a textbook. The ease of amendment by initiative and referendum has produced endless gimmicks that diffuse accountability, confuse the public and produce thoroughly dysfunctional governance. People from across the political spectrum are calling for a constitutional convention.


If Californians do rewrite the Constitution, it should be revised to resemble more closely the concise federal Constitution: more responsible legislators and executives, stronger control of the bureaucracy and less direct democracy.

Of the many reforms being circulated, the Founding Fathers might approve these six.

Part-time Legislature:

Hard spending cap:

Two-year budgeting cycle:

Eliminate the two-thirds supermajority requirement for budgets:

Unified executive branch:

This is from Tom Karako who directs the Claremont Institute’s Golden State Center.

I’m not sure I agree with everything Karako has to say, but some things certainly make sense.

Actually, a lot of this makes sense. Over the past several years, it seems our Legislature has had too much time to consider and enact laws that benefit special interests, cost taxpayers huge amounts of money, or really do nothing but satisfy a pet peeve. If they didn’t have all year to enact legislation, maybe there would only be half as many bad laws on the books.

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