Mr. Collins,

Thank you for recognizing the need to re-engineer the California Constitution and your willingness to emerge from the peanut gallery to move forward on this issue. California is broken and must be reclaimed by those with the memory and the moxy to do something about it. Native Californians have watched as others have turned our once proud state into their own private piggy bank through speculative practices and get-rich-quick schemes while our schools, our parks, and our infrastructure continue to labor and crumble from neglect and outright plunder.

Mr. Herdt may have his doubts but the editorial board of the LA Times is squarely in your corner. They ran the first in a series of planned op-eds entitled The California Fix: Start from scratch, that correctly identifies many of the same problems as you do and calls for a Constitutional Convention to address them.

Keep hammering away. You would make an excellent delegate to such an assembly.

There is no doubt that it is time to re-write our State Constitution. But to allow it to be done by the corporate interests backing the Bay Area Council (read Chevron) is not the solution.

Two initiatives went live last Friday that are a real grass roots effort to elect delegates that can re-write and update the laws. This is the way government should be done, of the people, by the people.

The college students and Obama election team are on board and in place in 80 assembly districts. These two initiatives are the only ones actually filed and live now.

Our 130 year old Constitution was amended more than 500 times by corporations on a piecemeal basis rendering it useless. Let's sweep it out and start from scratch.

I trust that 400 elected delegates that we choose can slug out their political differences and come up with the best Constitution for us all. Then it will be passed by the voters.

This is the way to take poisonous special interests out from power over our lives.
One of these plans will get adopted, the right one is the California Constitutional Convention. Enter that address on Facebook and get involved.

We CAN

Stephanie,

Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

Do you really see them throwing out every initiative and starting over? Does that include term limits, education funding, and chicken cage regulations?

I agree with you,Rob. It is time to revamp the state constitution. I'll be checking out the links you provided. When watching the dysfunction in Sacramento, it is apparent we need BIG change. I agree with you. Let's get this started.

I applaud your advocacy of a Constitutional Convention and agree it is the only way to fix California. However, I have looked at the 3 approaches and I like Paul Currier's WE CAN plan best because is truly open and grass roots. Delegates to the convention are elected, not appointed by special interests or existing officials. The delegates are to be sequestered to keep them from being bombarded by the special interests - which is one of the main problems with our Legislature. When their work is finished it is offered up to the people in the light of day, to be voted on again, fairly and openly in an election. This seems to be the smartest and most democratic approach to a Constitutional Convention and far better than the others being proposed.

Mr. Collins. We often hear that we need the 2/3rds vote in Sacramento to keep taxes from getting too high. Yet other states that only require simple majorities to pass budgets and taxes have lower tax rates than California. Why do you think that is?

We don't want the state "repaired" if it doesn't involve trimming massive bloated budgets and lowering taxes.....

The state and local governments have spent the past ten years doubling budgets and packing fat onto public employees pay, perks, and pensions.....

We have the two largest pension systems on earth right here in california: CALPERS and CALSTRS....but these are only 2 of 61 state and local government run pensions in california....which have spent the past twenty years or so stashing away $100's of billions in wall street, real estate, and foreign markets for the sole purpose of churning out pension dollars for public employees.....

Our public officials should have been as diligent in running their sector of government as they were in planning for their own future retirement and the retirement of public employees....

And we certainly don't want any of these untrustworthy bozos messing with the State Constitution......none of them

Rob:

Congratulations for having the insight, wisdom, and most importantly the courage to speak "..Enduring public service truths to arrogant political power in Sacramento.." Specifically your second paragraph, wherein you correctly deride the utterly outrageous and morally unconscionable actions by Assembly Democratic Leader Albert Torrico.

Mr. Torrico, during the stealth of night, led the most recent effort to expunge votes cast by certain members of his Democratic caucus on controversial State budget bills, most notably the bill on Offshore Oil and the State’s raid on local transportation funds, so that they would be shielded from the anger of key campaign contributing constituencies knowing they voted against their perceived special interests..

Beyond the fact that this morally bankrupt, it is politically stupid in a 21st Century age of Internet-blogs, Data-rich cell phones and laptops, Twitter and Facebook. Clearly, Assembly Democratic Floor Leader Albert Torrico is bucking to be the "Winston Smith" of the California Assembly...

By his Orwellian actions, Mr. Torrico has single-handedly undercut the moral and political authority of the majority Democrats to run the Assembly, since he has shown that he has no respect for straight-forward, transparent representative government, accountable to the people..

As a Democrat, it both pains and disgusts me that Mr. Torrico, selected by the Democratic members of the State Assembly to serve as Democratic Leader would stoop so low and take such an outrageous action, without adverse consequence from Democratic members.

As a Californian, it enrages me that a portion, slight as it maybe, of my hard-earned income that I pay in ever-increasing State income, sales and use taxes goes to fund Mr. Torrico’s salary and tax-free per-diem payments.

As an American who believes and agrees with Churchill’s observation that“..Democracy is the worst form of government, save for all others,” it reminds me, once again of Orwell’s observation that, “I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.”

Now is the time for men and women of good will seeking public office to speak truth, both to the people whom they seek to represent, and to the politically powerful, so-called leaders of the State Legislature they are seeking to join...

To that end, the critical question that I would pose to any candidate contemplating a run for the State Assembly is, ".Where is your public statement condemning the outrageous actions of the Assembly's Democratic Leader who has shown such disregard, disrespect and disdain for honest, representational government, accountable to the people?

And more importantly, “If elected will you, as your first act in the State Legislature, commit to introducing a Constitutional Amendment, banning the process of expunging votes, today, tomorrow, and forever?.”

It's actions like Mr. Torrico's which have caused the State Legislature's approval ratings, currently controlled by the Democrats, to plummet to an unprecedented low of 9% based on recent polls.. Even Richard Nixon, at the height of the Watergate Crisis had higher approval ratings that that!!!

Thank you Rob for your guest-blog...

NostraDemus

What makes anyone think that the state's voters and representatives can agree on a new, sensible constitution if they've been at odds and deadlocked on every issue for the past 30+ years?

It was Ronald Reagan who chose to keep CALSTRS and CALPERS instead of going to strictly Social Security. It is sad that andylevinson and other teabaggers are now trying to second guess the decision made by the late great Ronald Reagan and that they are trying to smear the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

Repubs also created the "death panel" concept back in 2003 when they included it the language for their bizarre Medicare drug bill (the one that prohibited the govt from negotiating for the best prices). Then they promoted it in one of the Senate health coverage proposals so they could have something to attack, accusing the Dems of wanting to kill grandma.

Anyone read the little blurb in the LA Times a few days ago about the coming change in tax rates? Because of the fall in revenues to the State the tax rates automatically shift...meaning that the average taxpayer will have to pay an extra $140 to the Franchise Tax Board every year.

That amount is very close to the amount the majority of CA voters were so eager to save back when The Governator was running for office on the dubious claim that he'd make sure the vehicle registration fee was abolished. Sounded great at the time and I'm sure that in the overwhelming euphoria of being able to vote to get money the ayes forgot to read the fine print. What the "contract" with team Schwarzenoggin REALLY meant to say, but like desperate used car salesmen didn't....was that by removing the VRF from CA's revenues would, without any uncertainty, immediately create a $5B deficit in the first year, a $10B deficit in the second and so on. Over the past 6 years the loss of those revenues have created a $30B deficit. That's without ANY new spending and WITH drastic budget cuts....everything the anti-tax folk told us would save California from its financial mess.

Now everyone's got to start ponying up to make good on that $5B per year loss just to keep our fiscal heads above water. We'll still have to deal with the growing deficit and you can be certain that Team Schwarzenoggin will find ways to tax it out of us...by calling it fees.

I am both surprised they can do this without a vote and that people honestly don't agree it is a tax increase.

I am both surprised they can do this without a vote and that people honestly don't agree it is a tax increase.

CA voters are quickly discovering, if not actually learning, about the notion of Cause & Effect.

As for it being a "tax increase": it's only a tax increase if those who grab the dialogue first yell the loudest longer. If I was running the Dems' message machine I'd be all over the Repubs for secretly raising everyone's taxes by the same amount they cut, to get The Governator elected.

GS:

What Democratic message and whose Democratic machine?

Steinberg, in spite of 2008 being a Democratic year, Obama getting elected, and spending tens of millions of dollars, couldn't pull-off winning 17 State Senate seats guaranteeing a 2/3's majority. And ever since then, he's been too quick to compromise with our Girly-Man Governator.

After all, regarding the State Budget, he sold-out to the Republican minority by agreeing to raise State income, sales and use taxes by about $1,000 to $1,200 per year on the average working class family of four who make only $40,000 per year (that is those who still have a job) at the same time he agreed with Arnold's proposal to give Hollywood and Silicon Valley mega-corporations $1 Billion in State tax breaks..

Bass, in spite of the political power of the Speaker's Office, couldn't marshal a majority of votes in the Assembly Democratic Caucus to pass meaningful prison reform legislation, and worse, is silent when Assembly Democratic Leader Torrico stealthily expunges voting records in the dark of night, Winston-Smith style, without political consequence or price...

The bottom line is that Gerald Parsky, Arnie’s ultra-rich buddy, whom he appointed to Chair the State Tax Reform Commission, is hell-bent on REDUCING the State tax-burden paid by those making over $100,000 per year, and INCREASING it on all working class families, regardless of whether they are Democrats, Republicans and Independents, liberal, conservative, or libertarian.. Check out the URL above for Dan Walters' SacBee Article on the Tax Commission's musings..

For these mega-rich elites, it doesn't matter what party they are or where they land on the political spectrum.. The elites in Sacramento ALL meet T.S. Elliot's description to a tee!. "The rich, really are different than you and me.."

My fervent prayer is that Ted Kennedy's Democratic spirit will persuasively and persistently haunt Mssrs. Steinberg, Torrico, and Ms. Bass, and other so-called Democratic leaders in Sacramento, until they undergo a Dickensian conversion of political spirit and soul before it is too late... for them, the Democratic Party, and most importantly, ALL the hard-working families in California, regardless of race, color, creed or political registration....

NostraDemus

As you well know, ND, there are Dems and there are Dems. There are those who believe in progressive politics and those who believe that the deal is everything, and the voters be damned.
It's a shame that the latter have been controlling Sacramento for too long and have either failed to grab the dialogue or have deliberately allowed it to pass by....in exchange for the Deal.

GS:

There is nothing wrong with deal-making, since compromise, is the operational essence of practical politics in a representative democracy.

It is the tactical means by which the people's representatives balance majority rule with minority rights. But it is not a strategic end in itself, as the current crop of so-called Democratic leaders in Sacramento seems so eager to embrace..

Further, based on the actions, or more importantly lack of actions, that both Steinberg and Bass have taken during the last year or so, I see neither of them applying the hard-fought lessons of principled, effective and lasting Democratic legislative leadership demonstrated by the likes of David Roberti, Jess Unruh, Bob Morretti, Leo McCarthy or Willie Brown..

I will say again and again...As a working-class Democrat, it is utterly unconscionable to me that Bass and Steinberg agreed to a State Budget deal which forced working class families in California, who only make on average $40,000 per year, (that is if they are not part of the 2,187,000 unemployed in the State) to pay an extra $1,000 to $1,200 in State taxes and fees per year to finance State government at the same time that they gave $1 Billion in tax breaks to Hollywood and Silicon Valley corporations.

And what's worse, by their actions and now inactions, Sacramento's elites continue to drive business after business, including those with union workers, from the State...Check out the URL above for news about Toyota’s closure of the last Auto Manufacturing Plant in California at a time when nationwide, Toyota’s car sales are rebounding due, in part, to the Federal “Cash-for-Clunkers” program.

Ted Kennedy could and did make countless political deals with Republican icons like Strom Thurmond, Orrin Hatch and Dick Lugar, for many a good cause. And by so doing, he demonstrated one of the essential qualities of political leadership, which is the adaptive management of ideological principles to fit exigent circumstances at the point of decision. But adaptive management of ideological principles is not the same as the gutless abandonment or sell-out of core principles.

As often as Ted Kennedy visited California and fought tirelessly in Washington, D.C., for working-class families, of all political parties, including farm workers, factory workers and construction trades people, his Democratic spirit must surely be writhing when he contemplates the actions of this group of so-called, self-selected Democratic leaders in Sacramento...

NostraDemus

I don't disagree with you about deal making & compromise, ND, but I do take issue with those Dem leaders whose deals more often than not result in bad compromises, ie, the rise in taxes and fees you mention, among other middle class penalties. These are regressive deals, not progressive politics and as long as the Sacramento Dems are willing to carry their water, the Repubs will sit back and drink till their kidney's burst.

These sorts of deals will come back to haunt progressives when the state GOP grabs the dialogue and blames all Dems for hitting us with these penalties. Once that happens the voters' will be deaf to any complicated explanation of how the Repubs forced the Dems into such bad deals. Instead, the Dems should already be hitting home the message that it was the Repubs who brought down these penalties. They aren't and they won't and next year it will be too late for their candidates.