California Voters Extend Citizens Redistricting Commission

California is notorious for non-competitive electoral districts for the State Assembly, State Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives. Each district is designed to maximize the incumbent's chance of re-election. Almost all districts are currently designed to be either heavily loaded with Democratic Party voters, or with Republican Party voters.

In 2008 California voters passed Proposition 11, which established a Citizens Redistricting Commission to redraw the Assembly and Senate district boundaries after the results of the 2010 census come in. Otherwise the state legislature would have redrawn the districts, thus allowing each elected official to have a say in their own district's boundaries. Both the Democratic Party and Republican Party apparatus opposed Proposition 11, making its passage a landmark along the path of California voters to independence from these two ancient, corrupt, federal parties.

In the November 2, 2010 election two related propositions were on the ballot. Proposition 20, in passing, extended the authority of the Citizen's Redistricting Commission. Proposition 27 would overturn Proposition 11, returning redistricting power to the very legislators whose districts are to be redrawn.

With the votes tallied as of today, the results were:

	Yes Votes	%	No Votes	%
Proposition 20	4,569,276	61.4%	2,881,716	38.6%
Proposition 27	2,963,152	40.4%	4,354,553	59.6%

I interpret this as a dramatic victory for democracy. A substantial number of citizens saw the need for a redistricting system that is designed for the good of the citizens, not the good of politicians.

That said, I don't see anything wrong with arguing about some of the particulars of the original Proposition 11. Hopefully, however, the experiment will go well. Then we, those California citizens who can put partisanship aside in favor of the general good, might make some improvements in the system for the round of redisticting that begins in 2020.

Be sure to visit CaliforniaDemocracy.org for more about issues important to democratic government in California and the United States.

Democracy Under Pressure

Democracy is one of those words that can have a very broad meaning. To what ever extent you believe the state of California is a democracy, you should be aware that the ongoing economic crisis is putting severe burdens on "rule by the people."

Some would say that California is, in fact, a republic, not a democracy. See my America, Republic or Democracy? for an introduction to this topic for the United States. Most of the arguments apply to the state of California as well.

We certainly have very few elected officials compared to the size of the population (37 million). There are only 80 members of the California State Assembly and 40 members of the California State Senate. In most of the states of the United States there are far fewer voters in a district for a state legislative seat than there are for a member of the United States House of Representatives. But in California the Assembly districts are only lightly smaller than U.S. House seats (California has 53 Representatives in Congress). Each California State Senate seat represents almost 900,000 people and is larger than a congressional district.

That means only tiny percentage of people in the district have any meaningful access to their representatives. Which in turn means that interest-group lobbies rule. The most powerful lobbies in the state represent corporations, often ones that do business in the state but are headquartered in other states. Sometimes they are foreign (non-U.S.) multinational corporations. Other powerful lobbies include state employees unions and professionals like lawyers.

You might think with a small ruling political class, what government lacked in democratic representation would be made up in efficiency and unity of purpose. But the government of California is probably as inefficient as any on earth. It can't make decisions, unless it is making bad ones.

Blessed with natural resources, including a window on the economically important Pacific Ocean rim, and a talented people of diverse backgrounds, California has prospered despite the state government, not because of it.

The only thing our legislators are good at is blaming someone else for their incompetence. Generally speaking, those associated with the Democratic Party and those associated with the Republican Party cast the blame at each other at election time. That way few voters look closely at the legislative record of their own representatives.

If California were split into 2, 3 or 4 states, each state might be small enough to reform and govern itself. If California split from the United States, we might divide it up into 20 or so regions each with a population larger than many of the current united states.

A more likely solution would be up to the people themselves. They could create California-based political parties that made California issues the decisive factors in state elections. Most citizens can only devote so much time to paying attention to politics. Naturally, they pay attention to big-issue national politics: war and peace, and which Congressmen are cheating on their wives. So they vote for members of the California State Assembly and State Senate based on party identifications that have little to do with governing California.

Throw the rascals out should be the rallying cry for Californians in the 2010 elections. But the usual will happen: the power of incumbents is so great that none, or very few, will fail to be re-elected unless they are term-limited out. And when there is a term-limit reached, the party machines will have some hack ready to step in and play at politics the same as the old hack. The donors seldom change, just the political faces that their money buys.

California on the Ropes

California is on the ropes. It is being hit harder than most states by the current recession. Its government is paralyzed. No one is steering; the ship of state has run aground.

Unraveling a disaster of this magnitude is going to be a lot harder than avoiding it in the first place would have been. After the budget crisis of 2001-2002, the government of California should have taken steps to build up a surplus during the relatively good years of 2003-2007. It should have made fundamental reforms in the way budgets are created. Instead it feasted on tax dollars blown in by the housing bubble.

The electorate should bear part of the blame for electing those who have been in the legislature lately. Mostly, though, the electorate has mainly be manipulated by the two major party political machines. The machines determine who will have the money to win their primaries. All most all of California's elections are basically won in the primary of the dominant political party in that district; the lines of the district are drawn to ensure that almost no incumbent that runs loses his or her seat. And even competent politicians are term limited out of the Assembly in just six yeas.

Even if better politicians were elected, they might be dazed and confused by the current budget system.

There is no central budgeting authority that makes sure budgets are balanced in the sense that in good years there is a surplus that can be used as a cushion in bad years. Nor is there an authority that makes sure public spending is balanced between the various needs of the people of California. The state Senate is not a central authority; nor is the state Assembly. The governor actually has little power over budgets except the power of persuasion. Nor is there any bureaucracy that keeps things in order so that politicians can do what they do best, posture and swill whatever lobbyists lay before them.

Every session of the legislature is a feeding frenzy. This is fought around a skeleton of laws enshrined in the state Constitution that determine where much taxpayer money can go. Can't get the legislature to throw you a bone? Sponsor a referendum. Bond measures are passed willy-nilly because voters consider each measure in and of itself, with little regard to how the bonds affect the state budget. Bonds take decades to pay off and effectively treble the cost of any project, once you include interest payments.

I think it is fair to argue about whether any specific tax in California is too high or too low, but I agree with those who think that taken as a whole, California taxes (with federal and local taxes) are about as much as a people can reasonably bear. When the economy revives there will be more tax revenue

I would also tend to agree that California's tax structure is ridiculously unfair. Two people living in houses of similar real value may be paying taxes that are an order of magnitude different. Some businesses pay little or no taxes, when businesses that are equally profitable pay much higher taxes. The Board of Equalization seems to be all about inequality these days.

The people of California have to look at the whole picture and come to a consensus about what a good budget process would look like. Once that is known, they need to elect politicians who will put it in place.

Perhaps what California needs is a California political party that is centrist in nature. It could put a damper on politicians who love to spend other peoples' money and don't mind raising taxes. And on those who won't allow taxes to be raised, but who in actuality also love to spend other peoples' money on their pet bureaucracies, or provide tax breaks for their friendly corporate sponsors. Those two groups of politicians have caused the current crisis, and they correspond fairly closely to the two major political parties.

Even if a centrist party were started today, it would take a while to implement. Be prepared for a couple of unpleasant years in California. It won't be the government that pulls us out of this mess. It will be the creative citizens who put their shoulders to the wheel and revive the economy with their sweat. While most unemployed citizens just bumble around, happy to get unemployment benefits while waiting for their next set of instructions.

Here are three suggestions for immediate use:

Have a ten year moratorium on new statewide bond issues. Don't make it a law; organize the citizens to vote down every bond for ten years.

Let 25% of state prisoners out of prison on early parole. That is the quickest way to cut the budget. They are going to get out eventually anyway, which is a risk society has decided to take. If they violate parole, they go back in. So the downside is not nearly as bad as bankrupting the state of California would be.

Create a state-owned credit union that is strictly for creating mortgages for residences. Loan only to those who have substantial downs, but keep interest rates on the loans as low as possible. Get the housing market stabilized, and the tax base will be stabilized. That will buy time to make the fundamental changes that are necessary for survival in the 21st century.