Panel Not Expected to Urge Assembly-Senate Merger

A proposal to merge the state Senate and Assembly into a single legislature is not likely to survive this week’s final session of the California Constitution Revision Commission, the panel’s chairman said Monday.

Chairman William Hauck, a former aide to Gov. Pete Wilson, has been a proponent of a single 121-member California Senate, but Hauck said he would not push hard to include the idea in the constitutional overhaul plan being written this week for the November ballot.

“There is no public support for it, and it’s dead over there,” Hauck said, pointing toward the state Capitol, where most lawmakers favor retention of the traditional two-house system.

Hauck added that he feared that the entire package of reforms would be in jeopardy if the unicameral legislature was included. The plan must be approved by a two-thirds vote in both legislative houses before it can go on the ballot for voter approval.

The unicameral legislature proposal has been the subject of more public discussion and media exposure than any other idea debated by the 21-member bipartisan commission over the past 18 months.

However, a majority of people testifying before the commission at a series of hearings throughout the state favored keeping the checks and balances of a two-house Legislature, even if they often lead to stalemates at the Capitol.

The California Constitution Revision Commission was created two years ago with the mandate of proposing reforms “to make the state and local governments more accountable, responsive and efficient.”

On Monday, the commission voted to eliminate a major source of gridlock in Sacramento in recent years: the two-thirds vote required to approve the state budget.

The commission voted 13 to 5 to allow the budget to be passed on a majority vote in each house. Any tax increase still would require a two-thirds margin, however.

Those voting against the majority-vote proposal included all four commission members appointed just last week by new Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). The Pringle appointees replaced four members picked by former Democratic Speaker Willie Brown, who now is the mayor of San Francisco.

The commission also voted to recommend putting California on a two-year budget cycle and require the governor and Legislature to maintain a balanced budget.

The state Constitution requires only that the governor submit a balanced budget at the start of the year. There is no mandate that the final adopted version balance revenues and expenditures.

The commission still faces debate on major proposals dealing with state and local government, the initiative process and the education system before it concludes its two-day meeting late today.