October 29, 2009
AFTER THE GOLD RUSH, TAKE 2
California yesterday came a step closer to convening a constitutional convention when a coalition of organizations from across the state filed its language for two measures to appear on the November 2010 ballot. The first measure will ask voters to amend the Constitution to permit themselves to call a convention, and in the second they will be asked to actually call it.
Repair California, the umbrella group for the coalition of citizens, reformers and advocates, submitted the measures that would reform four areas of the state constitution: the budget process; the election and initiative process; restoring the balance of power between the state and local governments; and creating new systems to improve government effectiveness.
In endorsing the idea of a constitutional convention as a way to solve California's nagging political and fiscal problems, the Los Angeles Times editorialized: "A convention can work. It can give the constantly evolving state an updated government that better serves its restless people."
The ballot language filing came within days of a favorable Time magazine cover story on California, which concluded that despite being "stuck in an awful recession," the Golden State is "not imploding, which ought to be heartening to Americans regardless of ideology or geography."
The story advised readers to "ignore the California whinery. It's still a dream state"...on "the cutting edge of the American future - economically, demographically, culturally and maybe politically."
With 38 million residents and a $1.8 trillion economy (which would put it in the G-8 if it were a country), California is "the greenest and most diverse state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions," the article stated. In addition to leading "the nation in agricultural production," Time said California is "also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high tech, biotech and now clean tech."
While highlighting California's "immense resources," its "incredibly dynamic economy" and its "enviably young and productive workforce," the article also called attention to the state's problems including a "dysfunctional" budget process and notorious "lobbyist-produced ballot initiatives," such as Proposition 13, which since 1978 has severly limited property-tax increases and choked off funding for schools and local governments.
Fortunately, the constitutional convention would directly address these issues as well as the state's two-thirds rule for increasing revenues. (For more information on the ballot measures, including the routes to become a delegate to the constitutional convention, click on the Repair California link above.)
We owe it to ourselves, and future generations, to seize this historic opportunity to restore the California - indeed, the American - Dream by supporting the effort to get the constitutional convention measures on next year's ballot.
Posted by Alias at October 29, 2009 12:08 PM