Why California can't be governed

Ever wonder why we Californians seem to have so much trouble governing our finances? Well, it wasn't always this way, and, as a 7th generation California native, I can personally attest to a huge variety of changes, instituted in large part by a populace that moved from *other* areas to then impose their own will on the rest of us (such as freebies for everyone but no way to pay for it).

Being lucky enough to be born when I was, I enjoyed a solid public education, a safe neighborhood, friends and neighbors who shared similar values, an enviable infrastructure and a state-supported university system that was among the best of the world.

When it changed, it just wasn't due to Prop. 13, although that was the start of it. I remember joining my family to protest the proposition (my first foray into politics), and when a cigar smoke-smelling Howard Jarvis waddled by and told my brothers and I, "Why don't you go home and learn to read?" I'm sure he didn't realize that home schooling would become the savior for many of today's families.

The L.A. Times has an opinion piece on what ails California, and it's a quite instructive. From the article:

After Proposition 13 passed, then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat-dominated Legislature realigned -- "tangled" would be more accurate -- the relationship between state and local governments by effectively shifting control of remaining property tax revenue to Sacramento. In a crisis atmosphere, they radically transformed California's political landscape, taking power and responsibility for health, welfare, schools and other local services away from city councils, boards of supervisors and school boards, thereby establishing today's chaotic maze of overlapping jurisdiction, which defies efforts at accountability...

Proposition 13 also ushered in an era of ballot-box budgeting, as fiscal initiatives became a favored special-interest tool to take control of public fund expenditures. A series of post-13 initiatives -- including measures creating the lottery, financing public schools by mathematical formula and earmarking revenues for special programs, from mental health to medical care -- established an exquisitely complex state budget calculus that has hamstrung the rational operations of government...

The once-a-decade process of redrawing political maps based on the census has created an increasingly partisan Capitol atmosphere. Reapportionment has become essentially an incumbent protection effort, as lawmakers craft districts that are either safely Democratic or safely Republican. In this way, the crucial contests are party primaries, not the general elections. Because primaries draw the most partisan voters, the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats tend to win the nominations that guarantee election in November. The dynamic locks in ideological polarization in Sacramento, where lawmakers have little motivation to compromise...

Despite the claims of backers, the 1990 term-limits initiative did not get rid of career politicians -- it simply changed the arc of their careers. Instead of spending decades in the same Assembly or Senate district seat, legislators position themselves for the next office -- or job as a lobbyist -- as soon as they arrive in Sacramento...

Since Proposition 13, state government has become increasingly dependent on volatile sources of revenue -- the sales, corporation and progressive personal income taxes -- that generate annual shifts in tax collections corresponding closely to the business cycle. When economic times are good, as during the dot-com and housing bubbles, money pours in and there's little political incentive -- in fact, term limits create a perverse disincentive -- for long-term financial planning. When revenues contract, the Capitol has rarely made real spending reductions, preferring to wait for the next boom...

California is one of only three states requiring a two-thirds legislative vote to pass a budget, one of 16 requiring a two-thirds vote to raise taxes -- and the only state to require both. The budget requirement has been in the Constitution since the New Deal; the tax restriction began with Proposition 13. In the polarized atmosphere of Sacramento, the two-thirds rules effectively hand a veto to the minority party. Under these conditions, stalemate and deadlock on key fiscal issues have become the political norm...

In the next few weeks, a blue-ribbon commission is set to recommend sweeping changes in the tax system to stabilize revenue collections. Voters last fall approved Proposition 11, which takes away the Legislature's power to draw its own districts in favor of an independent commission. Next year, as they elect a new governor, Californians also will vote on a system of "open primary" elections aimed at aiding moderates, and they also will probably decide on one or more initiatives to dump the two-thirds budget vote requirement.

California Forward, a bipartisan good government group financed by major foundations, is crafting proposals to conform government systems and processes to modern management methods. And the business-oriented Bay Area Council is pushing initiatives for a state constitutional convention, the first since 1879, to wipe the slate clean and build a new, rational structure for state government.