Will California Get a New Constitution?
The year has arrived when we’ll learn if the voters of California want to re-write their state constitution. Initiative measures currently gathering signatures, if qualified for the ballot and passed by voters in November, will create a state constitutional convention.
Arguments for and against calling a convention should fill up many a website and opinion page between the beginning of this new year and Election Day. The chatter has already begun. John Grubb, campaign director for the group pushing the convention, Repair California-Californians for a Limited Constitutional Convention, presented his arguments in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday.
A week earlier, I had my say in the Chronicle. I republish my commentary below. Simply stated, I don’t believe you can have a limited constitutional convention, especially when it comes to the question of taxation. Despite the pitch by convention proponents that Proposition 13 is off limits if there is a constitutional convention, I believe the famous property tax reform measure will be debated and convention delegates could offer changes.
A Look Back for the Governor
It all seemed so simple in 2004, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his first “State of the State” address.
“The state of our state will soon be strong because our people and our purpose are strong,” Schwarzenegger told a joint session of the Legislature. “We have a new spirit, a new confidence. We have a new common cause in restoring California to greatness.”
The governor had plenty of reasons to be happy. Three months after ousting Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in an unprecedented recall election, his popularity was high and 71 percent of Californians were confident he’d do what was right for the state.
Fast forward six years. Now, as then, the governor takes pride in being the ultimate optimist, someone who’s always ready to see a “fantastic” future in the headlights, regardless of how ugly things look in the rearview mirror.
Campaigns, Websites and Ideas
In
a 21st century campaign, it is no longer enough to offer ideas. Campaigns
now routinely urge voters to submit their own.
Each of the three major, declared
candidates for governor – Whitman, Poizner, Campbell – asks voters, through
their web sites, to suggest ideas for making California a better place. I
wondered: how many of these ideas made their way into the platforms of the
candidates?
I asked each of the three campaigns
to answer that question. Here’s what I learned: not many. Only Tom Campbell’s campaign
could point to specific policy ideas that came directly from the ‘net.
Here are each campaign’s response
to my question:
How California Went from Top of the Class to the Bottom
This article originally appeared on NewGeography.com.
California was once the world’s leading economy. People came here even during the depression and in the recession after World War II. In bad times, California’s economy provided a safe haven, hope, more opportunity than anywhere else. In good times, California was spectacular. Its economy was vibrant and growing. Opportunity was abundant. Housing was affordable. The state’s schools, K through Ph.D., were the envy of the world. A family could thrive for generations.
Californians did big things back then. The Golden State built the world’s most productive agricultural sector. It built unprecedented highway systems. It built universities that nurtured technologies that have changed the way people interact and created entire new industries. It built a water system on a scale never before attempted. It built magnificent cities. California had the audacity to build a subway under San Francisco Bay, one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. The Golden State was a fount of opportunities.
Things are different today.