The Leaderless Legislature

The 2002 state Legislature produced some major achievements, including the landmark global warming/auto emissions bill and a big school construction bond issue for the November ballot, but the year is most memorable for its failures. Lawmakers were inexcusably late in passing a budget, and they allowed special interests to run wild during the final week of the session. With cooperative leadership absent inside the Capitol, the legislative process often went up for sale.

There’s nothing unusual about frantic final days in any legislature, but this windup bore an excess of confusion and personal acrimony.

The 62-day budget impasse was finally resolved Saturday night with a deal that could have been cut two months ago.

Gov. Gray Davis, standing aloof from his own state’s budget fray, said the issue could best be resolved by the lawmakers, which is what finally happened. But perhaps they could have done this in July if the governor had publicly knocked heads and told them to fix the problem. We’ll never know because Davis never really tried.

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) showed little imagination, proffering only a hokey cigarette tax increase. The GOP vowed to reject any new taxes but finally acceded to “revenue enhancements” that amounted to the same thing.

One glaring example of the raw power of special-interest money was the fate of a bill, carried by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), to give consumers some control over personal information now shopped around for profit by banks and other financial institutions. Opinion polls show overwhelming public support for protection of financial privacy. But voters were no match for the money poured in by banks, insurers and credit card companies, enough to pull several “pro-business” Democrats to their side and kill Speier’s measure. Political hyperbole reached new heights when one Republican senator accused Democrats during the budget fight of “replicating the mistakes of the Third Reich.”

California’s term limit law, which puts a cap of six years on service in the Assembly and eight in the Senate, has made the Legislature an amateur’s playground. Lawmakers, even their leaders, often have dwindling regard for legislative traditions and procedures designed to create a climate for sound lawmaking. Campaign fund-raising, one thing term limit proponents expected to rein in, is more obvious than in past years, and just as suspect.

Also to blame is the 2001 reapportionment of legislative districts, which gave most members of both major parties safe seats and hardened the divide between Democrats and Republicans. Members have less to fear from voters. Compromise is more difficult.

The Legislature’s end-of-session performance will surely give a boost to voter apathy. And think of the dilemma of civics teachers trying to explain the legislative process to students. Leadership took a holiday, and we don’t know when it’s coming back.