A Deficit of Experience

There will be nearly 40 new faces when the state Legislature convenes today to organize itself for its 2003-04 session. That turnover is term limits at work again. The party lineup is virtually the same, with Democrats holding big majorities in both houses. However, a seemingly insignificant tilt in the balance of power will be magnified in the coming year as the governor and lawmakers struggle with a $21-billion-plus budget deficit.

Bringing down the brutally large deficit, which amounts to one-fifth of the total budget, will consume much of the next legislative session. A tiny increase in GOP power could play a major role because passage of the budget or any tax increase requires a two-thirds vote.

Republicans picked up one seat in the Senate, leaving Democrats in control 25 to 15, and the GOP won at least two Democratic-leaning seats in the Assembly, with one race still in doubt. If Democrats win that one, as they claim they will, they will rule 48 to 32. Therefore, Democrats must attract at least two GOP votes in the Senate and six in the Assembly to solve budget issues. The numbers last year were one and four.

Here’s one key loss: Fiscally moderate Republican Sen. Maurice Johannessen of Redding, who voted with the Democrats and gave the Senate its two-thirds vote on the budget last year, was termed out, and there are no more Republicans like him.

There already are warnings of deadlock. Democrats say the budget can’t be solved without some temporary new taxes. That’s true, unless the Legislature is ready to gut programs including public health and environmental protection. But Republicans continue to chant, “No new taxes.”

The 32 new members in the Assembly and seven in the Senate won’t have a honeymoon in which to bone up on how the Legislature operates.

Normally, the lawmakers convene in December for a day or two of organizational activity and then go home until January. But Gov. Gray Davis is calling the Legislature into special session Dec. 9 in an attempt to pare $5 billion from the current year’s budget.

Term limits and redistricting have combined to widen a partisan ideological gulf. Democrats have drifted further left and Republicans further right because so-called “safe seats” do away with any need to appeal across party lines. It is increasingly difficult to reach a compromise, especially on spending and taxes.

Activists are working against a tide of public opinion in their efforts to make term limits in California less restrictive and more like those in other states. But the trial-and-error workings of the Legislature these days show the need to keep the effort going.

A 12-year limit for members of each house would allow California to take advantage of the experience and knowledge that lawmakers build up in their first years in office. Nowadays, especially in the Assembly, they get the boot right after they learn the job.