First, let me say I love California and there is nowhere else I would want to live. Now, let me say that I am so incredibly furious at the lack of political courage our California lawmakers show from year to year. Here is my recipe on how I would resolve the issue and we could go back to enjoying our state and being economically productive and a beacon of social justice for the rest of the country and world.
The last few days have been a big joke here. Schwartzenegger is putting thousands of state employees on furlough and stopping state construction jobs. He can't seem to get more than 2 Republicans to join him on his current budget plan. The Democrats don't seem to be able to convince more than 2 of their colleagues in the other party to join them for a budget which is nothing but compromises. It truly has something for everyone to dislike.
Find New Republicans
If I were our governor, I'd be talking every day about New Republicans. I'd try to find folks throughout the state that would publicly support getting us out of our fiscal mess even though some tax increases are involved. I'd find these leaders in the districts where there are current Republican lemmings and I'd start organizing and advertising. I have a lot of schadenfreude (Schwarzenegger understands this word!) because of the way Arnold came into office and the broken promises he made. He thought he could do it better than Davis and now he's doing much worse. Uh oh!
Find strong Democratic candidates
Like the 50 state strategy, we need to an 80 assembly district strategy. (And a 40 senate district strategy. If we aren't able to repeal prop 13, then maybe we'll have more successful by keeping Republicans who serve in Sacramento well below the 1/3 threshold. I think we need to start a campaign for all California Republicans portraying them in all kinds of media with this slogan: "I Drove My State Over a Cliff And I Don't Care."
Call Abel
One of the more immediate actions we can take was suggested by an email I recently received from the Courage Campaign. LAbel Maldonaldo, who seems like a great candidate to get the budget passed. Let's call him at (916) 651-4015 and encourage him to help save California. I'll even offer to cross parties support his next reelection campaign. (Though I don't live in his district.) However, as the Courgage Campaign email says, we are all now in Abel's district since he alone has the power to pass the budget today, right now.
The last initiatives
Here are the very last initiatives I'd like to see in California.
After these three are passed, I say, no more initiatives. I know that the idea behind them has terrific progressive roots. But, today, it just a way for groups to buy their way into the legislative process.
1) Put them all out of office
If the State Assembly and Senate cannot pass a budget by a certain time, they they are ALL PUT OUT OF OFFICE and UNABLE TO RUN IN A SPECIAL ELECTION. A special election would be triggered and the only candidates could be folks who were not already in office in the Senate and Assembly. (This would be a fun one to argue in the California Supreme Court, eh?)
2) Repeal all aspects of Prop 13.
We don't need any more 2/3 majorities to increase taxes and we can start to reap the property taxes that have made the state struggle for the last 30 years. I'm a homeowner and I'd welcome increased property taxes for the benefit of all Californians.
3) Eliminate all initiatives
These damn things have caused our lawmakers to be lazy and cowardly. Rather than vote on hard issues and explain their votes to their consituents, they just pass them off to the initiative process. We need legislators to legislate. If they can't, then let all Californians just all vote on everything all the time and eliminate the State Assembly and Senate. How much money would that save in the California budget?