Minority rule
Yeah, this won't fit into 140 characters.
UC cognitive science prof George Lakoff, usually an adviser to Democrat candidates, especially concerning the framing of issues, is this year trying his own hand at implementing change: he's trying to get a constitutional measure on the November ballot so that "All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." His reasoning is that, currently, the 2/3rd majority required allows a 1/3rd minority (I believe Republicans are 37%) to hold up passing fiscal legislation, which is why budgets are frequently late (which has caused the state to stop services some years back) and stopgap budgetary decisions are made. Hence current funding problems in public schools and universities, hospitals, etc. Yes, you can draw similarities between this and the US senate's legislative log jam.
Frankly, part of the budget problem is that people want services but no one wants to pay for them. But maybe this will help. Currently, they're trying to collect petitions, recruit volunteers, and fundraise. This isn't getting a lot of support from the political machinery, so the initiative is going grassroots.
SF Gate article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/03/MND31C7UDR.DTL
Sites:
http://www.californiademocracyact.com/
http://californiansfordemocracy.com/
UC cognitive science prof George Lakoff, usually an adviser to Democrat candidates, especially concerning the framing of issues, is this year trying his own hand at implementing change: he's trying to get a constitutional measure on the November ballot so that "All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." His reasoning is that, currently, the 2/3rd majority required allows a 1/3rd minority (I believe Republicans are 37%) to hold up passing fiscal legislation, which is why budgets are frequently late (which has caused the state to stop services some years back) and stopgap budgetary decisions are made. Hence current funding problems in public schools and universities, hospitals, etc. Yes, you can draw similarities between this and the US senate's legislative log jam.
Frankly, part of the budget problem is that people want services but no one wants to pay for them. But maybe this will help. Currently, they're trying to collect petitions, recruit volunteers, and fundraise. This isn't getting a lot of support from the political machinery, so the initiative is going grassroots.
SF Gate article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/03/MND31C7UDR.DTL
Sites:
http://www.californiademocracyact.com/
http://californiansfordemocracy.com/