ShareThisI heard California Assemblyman George Plescia on the radio the other morning explaining his legislation to allow employees to take their dogs to work on June 20.Now I know why fellow assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, was able to put together the votes two years ago to boot Plescia, R-LaJolla, out of the minority leader's job.Allowing employees to take their dogs to work one day a year may be a fine idea, but do we really need a legislator carrying a resolution supporting the concept? Maybe we should put the dogs in charge of the Capitol and let them take a legislator to work once a year.The dog bill joins other signature legislation by California lawmakers, such as a measure to ban wild burros from private property and an exemption for the city of La Verne from providing separate traffic lanes for golf carts.Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, says there's even a bill to clean up grammar and spelling errors in laws already passed. Apparently state bureaucrats are too timid to fix typos on their own so they need a bill to go through both houses of the Legislature and then be signed by the governor. Arambula has a better idea: run a spell-check program on bills before they are passed.It might be unfair to single out these bills if lawmakers also were making California better with other significant legislation. Not a chance.They seldom get a budget passed on time, and this year could be a summer-long stalemate. The state's deficit continues to grow, even though the legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fixed it the past three years. Health care reform is dead, our transportation system is in gridlock, and our bridges and levees are falling apart. On top of that, our public schools are underfunded and underperforming.Even something they say they all agree on -- reforming the system for drawing legislative and congressional district boundaries -- never wins enough votes to get out of both legislative houses. These are folks who draw a salary for a job that never gets done.So maybe Assemblyman Plescia has the right idea. At least the California Legislature can perform on the trivial stuff.Much of the public must agree with me, because my computer in-box is jammed with positive e-mails every time I write about the problems with the state legislature. They reflect a public that's increasingly frustrated, which is what a Public Policy Institute of California poll said last week: Seven out of 10 Californians believe the legislature is doing a bad job.I'm not anti-government. I just think the legislature is not equipped to deal with 21st century problems. The politicians have a last-century mindset in which beating the other side is more important than solving problems. It's time for change from the political model of doing business.My plan, which I repeat often, is to abolish the legislature and replace it with a single house. We don't need a 40-person senate and an 80-person assembly when a 120-member unicameral legislature will do just fine. You aren't reducing the number of legislators, but you are getting rid of duplicated committees in the two houses.Take a vote on a bill and if it passes, send it to the governor. Simple.I've offered many other ideas for improving government, including limiting the number of bills that can be introduced each year to three. More than 2,000 bills are introduced annually, which is why people like Plescia seem obligated to push a resolution about dogs.The lack of commitment to getting things done frustrates Arambula, who believes the "safe" legislative seats drawn by gerrymandering have created lawmakers who practice politics on the extremes. "I feel like an endangered species as a moderate," Arambula said.The legislature seldom takes on an issue to solve it, he said, but "works around the margins." So lawmakers are easily sidetracked and big problems are put off to the next year.Getting redistricting reform will help, Arambula said, because legislators will be more accountable to the voters.Redistricting is another one of my key reforms for the legislature.But here's the main issue. The leadership in the legislature does not see anything wrong. The Democrats like their majority, which allows them to run both houses of the legislature. The Republicans like having just enough members to block tax increases or a budget.We need a complete overhaul of the California legislature. Until that happens, big problems will be ignored and lawmakers will continue to introduce trivial bills.Jim Boren is The Fresno Bee's editorial page editor. E-mail him at jboren(at)fresnobee.com.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Maybe dogs should take California legislators to work
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