The bestidea coming out of Sacramento these days is actually coming from the Bay Area, where a group of business leaders wants tocall a constitutional convention to revamp California's government.
The governance equivalent of a quintuple bypass anddeep brain stimulation surgery performed at the same time, a constitutionalconvention is a notion that should send shivers down the spine of anyreasonable person.
It slicesopen the body politic and exposes its vital organs to all sorts of poking andprodding.
Scary stuff.
On theother hand, what do we have to lose?
Infairness, it's not accurate to lay all the financial blame at the feet of theLegislature when 49 other states are going through the same issues. California's just happento be bigger because of the size of both the state and of its loftier realestate bubble.
Currentcrisis aside, though, the state's system of governance doesn't work nomatter who's trying to govern and under what circumstances. That was obviousbefore the most recent meltdown. Events of past few months have created animage in sharper relief.
- The requirement that budget legislation pass on two-thirds votes literally had the Assembly and Senate in lockdown over Valentine's Day weekend. And then things got ugly.
- Term limits -- six years in the Assembly, eight in the Senate -- put a premium on political showmanship over the craft and the art of compromise. "Deal" might be a four-letter word, but it isn't always a dirty one.
- Any special interest that can gather enough signatures -- or can afford to pay enough to have signatures gathered for it -- can create a new state program via initiative, regardless of whether there's any way to pay for it or not.
Traditionalthinking held that the only way to change any of that -- except for piecemeal,one initiative at a time -- was for two-thirds of the Legislature to agree tocall for a constitutional convention. The likelihood of that happening is evensmaller than the chances legislators will meet a budget deadline.
The Bay Area Council,though, thinks it has a workaround: Take the issue back to the beginnings, tothe people.
Council President Jim Wundermanunveiled the idea in anop/ed in the San Francisco Chronicle back in August. The proposal got aboost this week when Gov. Arnold Scharzenegger endorsed it.
Thecouncil believes calling a convention could be as simpleas two initiatives appearing on the same ballot. One would change theConstitution to allow citizens to call a convention. The other would then callthe convention.
Theorganization's polling indicates the time might be right. According to asurvey the council commissioned last month of 800 likely voters, 82percent believe the state is headed in the wrong direction. That perception hasgrown progressively stronger since the council's first poll in February 2002,when a mere 41 percent thought the state was off track.
Whileonly a few of those polled -- 23 percent -- had heard about the possibility of aconstitutional convention, when voters were given information about the issue,52 percent said they would vote "yes" if asked if one should becalled. Support was strong across all age groups and both genders and in all regionsof the state.
It soundslike the people are ready to speak.
