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    California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It
    California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It
    California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It
    Ebook294 pages5 hours

    California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It

    By Joe Mathews and Mark Paul

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Is California beyond repair? A sizable number of Golden State citizens have concluded that it is. Incessant budget crises plus a government paralyzed by partisan gridlock have led to demands for reform, even a constitutional convention. But what, exactly, is wrong and how can we fix it? In California Crackup, Joe Mathews and Mark Paul provide clear and informed answers. Their fast-paced and often humorous narrative deftly exposes the constitutional origins of our current political and economic problems and furnishes a uniquely California fix: innovative solutions that allow Californians to debate their choices, settle on the best ones, hold elected officials accountable for results, and choose anew if something doesn’t work.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of California Press
    Release dateAug 4, 2010
    ISBN9780520947085
    California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It
    Author

    Joe Mathews

    Joe Mathews is Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation as well as a fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion, Arizona State University. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy, a columnist for The Daily Beast, a freelance journalist, and associate editor of Zócalo Public Square Mark Paul is senior scholar and deputy director of the California program at the New America Foundation. He was formerly deputy treasurer of California and deputy editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee. Mathews and Paul are authors of the article "How to Fix a Broken State" in the March 2011 issue of Boom: A Journal of California.

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    Reviews for California Crackup

    3.5/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I propose a ballot initiative that replaces the current inscription at the State Office Building that reads, "Bring Me Men to Match My Mountains!" with the more appropriate, "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
    • 4/5
      Required reading for anyone living or planning to move to California. The vast influx of people to the Golden State resulted in too many people wanting too many different things AND with too much power to do ALL of them. Whereas, in a good times, the state with the world’s eighth largest economy, spending goes up assuming it will do so forever, only realizing how bad of an idea it was when the money tide ebbs. However, the efforts to control spending and restrict government has only led to unrepresentative government and uncontrollable spending…”a system so focused on consensus that it amounts to minority rule…” p. 10.The book is broken up focusing on how we got here, the specific problems, and how to fix them. The target is the initiative system that hijacks the state budget and legislature. Some of their solutions are, placing more checks and balances on initiatives, involving the legislature before the initiative goes to the voters, and giving them more control in changing the initiative if problems arise. The authors also focus on the restrictive Propositions 13 and 98 which have created a system that is difficult to change or improve. Proposition 13 took away taxing authority from local government and centralized it. Instead of local government being able to control the types of services provided through local monies, their power and ability to serve was taken away. Furthermore, the proposition created the two-thirds requirement for budget and tax passage, creating a minority rule in California. A handful of extremist senators can sit back on their hands while the state struggles to pass a budget. They can hold the state hostage. The authors also identify the polarization of Californians. We have all migrated into our own ideological camps where there isn't enough discussion and dissent necessary for an evolving democracy. The authors put forth suggestions such as open primaries and in some cases a more parliamentary system. They also suggest the government centralization in the executive branch has taken away local control and local decision-making especially in regards to property tax. Lastly, the executive branch is further examined in its schizophrenic set-up (Lt. Gov is elected separately of the Governor instead of the Gov appointing the position. Doesn't create a unified front for decision-making).The solutions are very counterintuitive to those not familiar with California Politics. It would appear that these reforms are taking power away from the people and into the hands of politicians, when in fact, it is doing the opposite. Some other suggestions like an open primary may make the state’s extreme ideologies blend a bit more to reward moderate stances (currently it doesn’t). Overall, the authors provide practical solutions to California's problems, however, since the problem is counter-intuitive, the solutions may not be readily accepted. It would seem to the average voter that their solutions take power away from the people through filtering the initiative process even though it is the main culprit in overspending and unfunded mandates. I hope this book would inspire a closer look at the political structure in California, perhaps make adjustments for its future. Some passages: “California is now in its fifth wave, a breaker that took off in the 1970’s and has still not crested; a tsunami of ballot initiatives that, in the name of putting the fear of public anger in California’s professional politicians threatens the whole enterprise.” P. 18“Things that Californians born after 1970 now simply take for granted, that you have to pay to get a police report or a permit to carry a weapon; pay when the paramedics whish you to the hospital after you fall of your bike…all started with proposition 13. It’s when the police department stopped sending out an officer after your home got broken into and cities started closing the library nights and several days a week.” P. 45“In wealthier communities, people raised private money or passed tax override measures as Prop 13 permitted, to keep up neighborhood parks or re-open the library at night. The move toward public squalor mattered much more to people with lower incomes, most of whom got no tax cut. For them, California became a meaner, shabbier, more dangerous place, on with fewer opportunities to get ahead. P. 45Proposition 13 made California the only state to require 2/3rds majority vote for both spending and tax bills. P. 46Centralization has not been as good for other Californians. Prop 13 and the resulting concentration of power in the state capitol made government opaque, inflexible, and unaccountable. P. 53Yes, the crooked assessors were out and property taxes were down. But taking taxing authority away from local government handed over local power to public employees; which led the state to take more policy authority; which made local government a less attractive place for anyone but public employees to serve; and which bread top-down policies that wasted tax dollars. P. 57This embrace of something for nothing measures has created new fiscal reality: California has two state budgets. One is passed by lawmakers, who must, under the state constitution, at least pretend to enact a balanced document. The other budget is improvised by voters at the ballot box and is under no such restriction. Over time, lawmakers have found the task of reconciling the voter-improvised ballot-approved budget with their own budget to be an increasingly difficult task. P. 72“…two-thirds votes have not contained spending and it blurs accountability…” Tom McClintock p. 85.Proposition98 has locked California schools into funding mediocrity and substandard achievement while muting the state’s ability to debate the ways to improve them. P. 88Outline for fixing the budget according to the authors:1.Start with a budget that tells the truth (Government doesn’t present budget in a clear way, simply subtract spending from revenue and you have an honest budget picture).2.Create a real rainy day fund, balance the budget over time and stop spending current fund needs fund. Need to set aside 15% of state budget and only spend if revenues are less than average for the previous ten years.3.Pay as you Go (can’t use future revenues on today’s revenues)California Fix: The Constitutional fiscal reform that California needs involves mostly subtraction, not addition. Take away Supermajority vote requirements for budgets and tax or fee increases. Take away prop 98. And no more embedding policy choices whether property tax rates or the apportionment of highways into the state’s fundamental charter; let them be regulated to statue where they belong. When it comes to fiscal provisions in the constitution, let California’s motto be: Get them Out Get them All Out. After years of gridlock and debt, California needs to give democratic budgeting a try. P. 103Even as Californians have been sorting themselves ideologically into Democratic and Republican camps, they have also been gathering geographically into communities of the like-minded. P. 107It seems in this section the authors prefer a parliamentary kind of representation. More parties have to form a coalition for power, but that system can still be subject to two party domination. Some other suggestion politician changes:Too many top level state executives elected instead of appointed, it makes them less accountable not more. Divided, but incoherent government. P. 143Obsolete: Lt. Gov (just there if Gov dies, but until then, contradicts gov, confuses things).Appointable: Attorney General (unified executive branch)Electable: Secretary of State since he oversees elections should be held directly accountable. Authors also cover efforts to divide the state longitudinally so that the coast and inland California are two separate states. More on the initiatives:Put simply, initiatives provide voters not with direct engagement with their government, but with a way to circumvent their state government and frustrate future majorities. P. 172Six Ideas to fix: p. 1751.Require initiatives as proposed laws and constitutional amendments to adhere to the same rules as legislation. (Legislatures would create language, subject to amendment or elimination from the legislature and consistent with all other state law.)2.Establish higher standards for constitutional amendments that give voters and lawmakers complementary powers to add or subtract from the document.3.Require any initiative that would impose supermajority voting rule s to win the same supermajority votes to become law. (55% to pass, 55% to change)4.Require all ballot initiatives and bond measures to live within the legislative budget. (Self-financing initiatives).5.Make it easier for voters to overturn the legislature through a more referendum-based direct democracy. 6.Lawmakers and Voters would be partners

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    California Crackup - Joe Mathews

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