Sacramento FBI Sting

Your article concerning the FBI’s Sacramento sting should become required reading for all serious advocates of better government (“How System Let 2 Bills Get Through,” Part I, Sept. 10). No one but gourmets benefits from a Legislature that wastes its time on Gulf Shrimp bills, but does nothing about automobile insurance reform.

When momentum becomes inertia, as it has in Sacramento, we end up with the kinds of legislative thrombosis and political buccaneering as reported by The Times. The solution to this mess will not come from replacing only those who happened to be caught in the FBI’s sting, but from a major restructuring of our Legislature.

California is represented nationally by 46 congressmen and two senators. On a state basis this figure is 80 assemblymen and 40 senators. It doesn’t take a lot of smarts to figure out that we are overrepresented locally by more than twice the number of lawmakers in Sacramento as we have in Washington. Such a bloated body cannot reasonably be expected to produce anything but comedy.

If California adopted a unicameral legislative structure, similar to that of Nebraska, we would be well on the road to better state government. A single legislative Sacramento house, with 50 to 75 lawmakers, would be an enormous shot in the arm for good state government. Hopefully, such a body would produce less than 100 well-researched, quality bills each session, instead of the 1,000 or so ragged-edged C-minuses that have become common practice.

It’s time to rid ourselves of a system that primarily benefits the “Gang of 120” and replace it with an idea whose time has truly come.

MICHAEL A. SCOTT

Glendora