Six years ago, the brawny movie star rode into town on a promise to kick butt and take names. Remember? Unfortunately, his good intentions ran headlong into the immoveable object. These days, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is just another garden-variety politician, humbled by his failure to slay the beast that is state government.
In Tuesday's special election, state voters all but disavowed their government and in the process handed Schwarzenegger an embarrassing defeat. An angry electorate wanted nothing to do with the latest hash of budgetary gimmicks designed to postpone the inevitable reckoning.
For most of the last decade, state government has been kicking the can down the road - refusing, in good times and bad, to bring spending in line with revenues. Now the economy is in the toilet, the bills are coming due, and there is nowhere to hide.
We're talking about furloughing cops and teachers, about the early release of prison inmates, about denying health care to children, about local agencies filing for bankruptcy, about a fire-prone state which may not be able to pay for fire protection.
We're talking about a state government abrograting its most basic responsibilities.
On Thursday, Staff Writer Guy Kovner filed an early tally of the damage to come - $16 million from the county general fund, $28 million from Sonoma County schools, $6.4 million from cities. These cuts, of course, are in addition to reductions imposed earlier in the year.
In the beginning, Schwarzenegger's mistake was believing that his celebrity and natural optimism would persuade political insiders to do what's best for California.
What he didn't understand is that the government is broken, and nothing will change until we fix it. Other candidates for governor will come along - they're lining up already - but it doesn't matter.
At a meeting of reform-minded groups last February, a Democratic state senator from Contra Costa provided an instructive metaphor for what state government has become. It's the Winchester Mystery House of governments, said Mark DeSaulnier, "We've built lots of rooms, but we didn't build hallways to connect them."
After decades of adding a room here and a room there, what we have is a government that doesn't work and can't work.
Inside the walls of the Capitol, the ideologues who control the Republican Party bear little resemblance to the Republicans you know in your hometown. These folks live in an alternate universe, a place where Calvin Coolidge is president and Rush Limbaugh is an intellectual giant.
The Democrats inside the Capitol owe their careers to public employees unions that believe it's OK to spend now and find the money later. They don't think government needs to be subject to the same economic realities as everyone else.
It would be impolite, of course, to mention the problems caused by voters such as you and me. Yes, we voted for more spending and lower taxes - and then complained about deficits. Yes, we voted for this ballot mandate and that ballot mandate - and then complained when government couldn't get out of its own way.
But we meant to do the right things, didn't we? So, I won't mention how you and I share responsibility for the sad state of California.
We live in "the ungovernable state," the Economist magazine informed us last week.
About Tuesday's election, the magazine explained, "The occasion has thus become an ugly summary of all that is wrong with California's governance, and that list is long."
California has become a state in which:
-The primary system disenfranchises mainstream voters - and protects the advantages of ideologues and special interests.
-Proposition 13 mandates a tax system that is, in equal parts, unjust, irrational and undemocratic.
-Local government has to beg state government for its leftovers.
-Every half-baked idea has a chance of being voted into law.
-A third of the legislators are granted the power to torpedo the will of the majority.
-The state's financial well-being is left to five people who lock themselves in a room at five minutes to midnight.
Why would anyone be surprised that this government doesn't work?
After years of mismanagement and last week's rejection of the latest stopgap measures, there will be hell to pay. Tens of thousands of government workers will lose their jobs. Programs once considered essential will be eliminated. (At a time in which students need extra help, the Petaluma school district closed its summer school last week.) Services to children, the disabled and the elderly will be slashed - or eliminated. Qualified students will be turned away from state universities. The list goes on.
Soon, perhaps in 2010, we will test whether Californians have the courage to unload a political system that is sinking of its own weight.
Reformers, including leaders of the Bay Area Council and the group call California Forward, want to ask voters to authorize a constitutional convention. (You can learn more at the Repair California Web site here.)
The complexities of a constitutional convention lend themselves to controversy. How will delegates be chosen? Will they be tasked to focus on a narrow list of topics, or invited to start over?
After six years of a governor who wanted to reform government, what we know is this: We can't prosper with a system we have now. We will fix it, or be doomed to more of the same.
Comments | Add Comment
Posted By: linda rollins (19/06/2009 10:34:36 AM)
Comment: Governor Schwarzenegger is proving himself to be a typical Republican who sides with Big Oil and shuns Californians. He has failed to collect billions of dollars owed to the California by Chevron and other refineries; royalties and taxes owed for drilling free of charge on public land, and for spewing thousands of tons of toxins into the air we breath, and into the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he wants to take away our state parks in a vicious land grab.
Posted By: Debra Bryant (16/06/2009 6:39:38 AM)
Comment: Here's a new thought...quit paying for illegal's housing, food stamps, child care, automobiles, medical and dental and the list goes on. The illegals get unemployment insurance benefits and do not pay into the system, they receive social security benefits and have not paid into the system, disability...The only reason they were brought in was so that they could throw the illegal elections that have taken place all over the United States.
We have corrupt politicians, inflated salaries for incompentent job performance, and politicians that have forgotten where there salaries came from. Our current govenor made it a friendly state for big business, so if that means they don't pay taxes then you surely cannot expect Californians to really give a hoot about it right. We dont benefit from public assistance, nor do we qualify for medical or dental benefits, food stamps and cash aid is out of the question. Our children are not educated, they are held back because the illegals dont speak or understand english. If our children have an education it is because we have put them in private school or taught them at home, at our own expense.
Now that millions of American have no jobs they are crying there is no money! Go figure.
The lawless in the federal government and the state government need to get back in line with the laws of this country and state. The citizens are taxed at every corner, prices raised on basic necessities and that does not include our homes because we have lost most of them do to the corruption in government and the insurance and banking industry that our governor so proudly supports and defends.
Now he tries to punish us by taking away our courts and children's medical care.
Mr govenor if you think it hurts me, then you need to rethink it. The whole setup you have organized for the benefit of big business and the feds has not protected us from gouging insurance costs, credit card rates that have long surpassed usury laws and are worse than pawn shop fees, nor have you protected us from injustice by the mortgage and banking industry, you worked right along with Bush to allow anything and everything to attack us, rob us of our ability to provide a home for our family, created so many laws that we have become numb to the evils that have bombarded us, we have no way to defend ourselves legally or physically. We are not heard when we speak, you turn a deaf ear, and have you tried to get anything accomplished with the powers that be now in this state, in our business's or our federal government? That in itself takes up any free time we might be able to find in our daily grind. No one knows anything anymore, and we are paying for alot of government agencies that do absolutely nothing!!!
My last comment is what have you done to stop Obama's takeover of this country? We are the only state that has not claimed its soverignity. What the hell are you thinking? You havent told Obama that he's not getting our guns. We can take that as a sign that you are with him and not for us. And you wanted us to pass a tax increase for what now? We didnt get the education you are trying to pass off on our children, Mr govenor!
Posted By: Vinny Denietolis (26/05/2009 9:50:02 AM)
Comment: This feels a lot like spitting into the wind but I'll ad my 2 cents. Until the state and local governments start to seriously look at the bloated retirement salaries and benefits of their employees this state will never have the ability to be financially solvent.
For those who think proposition 13 is the problem let's not forget that the reason the initiative was enacted in the first palce was due to rampant over spending by the state legistature in the first place. If you think the value of real estate has fallen sharply during this economic collapse wait unitl you see what happens to California real estate values if Proposition 13 were to be overturned
Posted By: Pray4Peace (25/05/2009 5:24:03 PM)
Comment: We need reforms to the justice, prison, and parole systems that are making us less safe, ruining salvageable lives, and bankrupting the state.
California has too many laws that lock up too many people for too many years. However, turning out thousand of ex-offenders with no more support than $200 is not a good way for people to start a new, responsible life. We need to insist on life and job skills training and other support for those released. That will make us safer and save us money.
Posted By: michael koepf (25/05/2009 1:19:06 AM)
Comment: The person who lives in an "alternate universe" is Pete Golis, an activist lefty who always fails to mention that state govenment for the past 30 years has been run exclusively by a liberal majority. He may propagandize and name call all he wants, but the voters are waking up to the fact that he and his ilk who have dominated the media; corrupted our government, and spent us into bankrupcy are babbling on to thier own oblivion.
Posted By: Raj Mishra (24/05/2009 10:41:25 PM)
Comment: It is time to renegotiate union contracts. Firefighters getting 90% of salaries as pension is ridiculous. Lets yank some state employees and cut salaries. Everybody is cutting back and government is no exception.
Posted By: Brien Farrell (24/05/2009 6:13:00 PM)
Comment: Let's hope that this crisis is the long awaited opportunity for serious reform. A constitutional convention will be messy, but it appears to be the best hope. Random election of the delegates does not make sense. I am not sure how to do it fairly, but I will ask Bruce Leavitt and pass along his suggestions.
Posted By: Mystery Meat (24/05/2009 2:26:08 PM)
Comment: '-Proposition 13 mandates a tax system that is, in equal parts, unjust, irrational and undemocratic.
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