California’s welfare system, known as CalWORKs, is in crisis. You might not hear much about it in the newspaper or on television, but this problem costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Instead of serving as a temporary assistance and retraining program that leads its recipients to new work and financial self-sufficiency, CalWORKs has itself become a way of life for many.

California has about 12 percent of the nation’s population. Under a rational system, we’d expect the state to have about 12 percent of the nation’s welfare recipients. But the reality is far worse—our state has about 30 percent of the nation’s welfare recipients. In comparison, Texas has 8 percent of the nation’s population, but just 3 percent of the nation’s welfare recipients.

How did we let it get this bad?

In 1996, Congress took much-needed action to reform the federal welfare program. The reforms tore down the old federal entitlement program and empowered states to implement genuine welfare-to-work programs. Caseloads across the country, including California’s, began to decline.

There’s no such thing as an ex-politician, as the approaching contest for a Central Valley congressional seat proves.

When GOP Rep. George Radanovich announced last month that he would be leaving Congress after eight terms to spend more time with his ailing wife, he endorsed state Sen. Jeff Denham of Atwater as his chosen successor.

“Jeff and I share over 100,000 constituents and I have witnessed firsthand the work he has done for our special part of California,” Radanovich said in a statement. “Given his proven record as a candidate and elected official, I will do everything in my power to help him win in June and November of next year.”

Not so fast. Dick Pombo, who lost his Tracy-area congressional seat to Democrat Jerry McNerney in 2006, is heading south for a comeback.

Everyone agrees California’s system of governance is broken. To reform it, we need to take power away from our ineffective state government and move it to the local level where there’s more accountability for local voters and taxpayers. A key first step in this process is stopping the ongoing State raids of local taxpayer funds.

Toward that end, a broad coalition of local elected leaders, business leaders, public safety officials, taxpayer advocates and others just began collecting signatures to qualify the “Local Taxpayer, Public Safety and Transportation Protection Act of 2010” for the November 2010 ballot. This measure will prevent the State from borrowing, raiding or otherwise redirecting local government funds. It also protects existing gas taxes we pay at the pump which go to transportation improvements.

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.

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.

In
a 21^st 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:

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.

Fox and Hounds Daily’s Black Bart Award as Californian of the Year in Politics goes to: Abel Maldonado.

He was named by all three of our nominators as someone whose impact was felt in the California political world.

As stated earlier in the week, Maldonado’s wheeling and dealing on the state budget ended with a vote to raise taxes, force a special election in May, propose a major policy change with the open-primary measure in the coming June 2010 election, and moved the debate on how California should be governed. His actions, along with his nomination for Lt. Governor, have set off much maneuvering in Sacramento. Whether or not you approved of the senator’s positions, his impact on the state political scene cannot be ignored.

We decided to name the Californian of the Year Award after gentleman highwayman Black Bart, a California original. He mixed a bit of larceny, artistry, good manners with character to push-back when he thought the system was working against him as exemplified by his famous poem left at the scene of his first stagecoach holdup:

The admonition of speaking truth to power is especially significant when the speaker is one of the powerful and the object of his lecture are allies and members of his own tribe. That’s why I believe state treasurer Bill Lockyer should be recognized for his efforts to shame the legislature to get its act together. Lockyer is my runner-up for Californian of the Year.

The man displayed great courage in lecturing the legislature over the state’s fiscal insanity and the need to create an efficient government; railing for public pension reform to a majority party which is supported by those who oppose such reform; and excoriating legislators or all stripes for bringing “junk” bills forward, robbing the legislature of time to face important problems in the state. These lessons must be followed if we are to turn California’s fortunes around.

However, Lockyer makes runner-up for my Californian of the Year because while he put a spotlight on some of the shortcomings in Sacramento, actions taken by state senator Abel Maldonado actually moved the pieces around the great Sacramento chessboard. Maldonado’s actions and ambitions made things happen, some say for good, others say for bad, over the course of the year.