I know many of our readers live outside of California, so I apologize to you for the many postings about The Golden State.  But as the old saying observes, “As goes California, so goes the nation,” so I feel OK posting about all of California’s troubles.

One thing that we have talked about is the absurd amount of time that all the state legislators spend in Sacramento working on law.  Having a full-time legislature has many downsides, some of which include:

• More and more arguably unnecessary laws being passed as legislators fill their idle time
• Way too much time to debate issues, like balancing a budget (i.e., if they had limited time, they would stop all the bickering and just come to a conclusion)
• More tax money going to the legislators and their staff and offices
• More time to spend with lobbyists
• Bigger and bigger government

California had a part-time legislature up until 1966, when the law was changed to make their positions full-time.  Paring the legislator position back to part-time would be an excellent first-step in reducing the inefficiencies and welfare-mindset of our state and in balancing our budget (which many say is negative $26 billion and growing). 

There is a group that has just received the go-ahead to start the petition-signing part of getting a proposition on the ballot for November 2010 elections.  Their proposition would make the legislative season only 3 months long, January, April, and May, with 5 extra floating days.  That’s it.

They need at least 700,000 signatures from California residents.  You need to print off the petition, sign it, and mail it in.  Their website is:

http://www.reformcal.com/cms/

If you live in California, please sign the petition.  If you live outside California, tell people you know that live in the state to sign the petition.

This is exactly the direction California needs.

Last 3 posts by Eric

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