In today’s Sacramento Bee, Steve Wiegand has an important article that every FlashReport reader should take in, entitled Long Hours In Capitol Mean Lousy Lawmaking, Critics Say. There’s a great photo of a worn-out Senator George Runner accompanying the piece.
Weigands piece takes note of the fact that four times this year alone, the State Legislature has engaged in the practice of having long, late-night marathon sessions where our elected representatives are forced to fight exhaustion and sleep deprivation as "deals" are put together.
We saw this happen first with the February budget debacle that brought us the largest tax increase in the history of any state. In July, another long time dealing with budget gets and an early morning gauging of taxpayers by adjusting withholding timelines, then there was the end of session with adjourned at 6am — and finally last week the embarrassing water-torture exercize that went to the wee hours.
**There is more – click the link**
November 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Bills available to the public for 72 hours prior to a vote and no sessions after sunset. Two changes that would make a world of difference.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Having suffered through just one lockdown during a budget stalemate, I can truly say they are detrimental to negotiations and create bad policy.
You can relive my nightmare here: http://www.flashreport.org/blog0a.php?postID=2007072109350108&post_offsetP=90&authID=2006111814384800
And freedom here: http://www.flashreport.org/blog0a.php?postID=2007072113013445&post_offsetP=90&authID=2006111814384800
It was a lousy way to make sausage then then and still is today.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am
A Initiative to make the legislature part time with part time pay.
Wake up. We are for a long hard slog of liberal moaning and groaning….granny this….and papa that…it is for the kids….and all the usual pap…
If you sick and tired of being sick and tired….IT IS GROUND HOG DAYS!
November 13th, 2009 at 12:00 am
A part-time legislature will make for MORE of these sessions. The initiative calls for only 90 days of session per year — and the first month no bills can be heard because of the constitutional requirement that all bills be in print for 30 days. It will mean even less public review and input.
Then there’s the fact that legislators will have just 30 days of experience on the budget before they vote on a budget. How absurd. You might as well just hand over the keys to the capitol to the lobbyists who will know far more about than amateur hour legislators.