“Every time you read the paper, there is another story about bills being passed in the dead of night, politicians in scandal, or ridiculous bills that do nothing to make California a better place to live,” said Assembly Republican Leader Kristin Olsen of Modesto. “We want to restore our constituents’ faith in this institution. That’s why we have introduced a legislative package to modernize state government and make it work for the people.”
Three proposals would modernize the legislative process by harnessing the power of instant communication to provide more sunshine in state government.
One proposal (Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 – Olsen) would institute a 72-hour in print rule for all legislation. This would effectively eliminate the practice of last minute “gut-and-amends” that strip out the entire contents of a bill and replace it with something completely new, late in the process. This practice limits the ability of lawmakers, the public, and the news media to read the text of bills before decisions are made at the State Capitol.
Assembly Bill 410, by Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake, would require that all reports authored by state agencies and submitted to legislative committees be posted online. These legally-mandated documents are considered public information, but there is no online posting requirement. This would remove a costly and time-consuming barrier to public information.
“Californians have a right to know how state government is operating and spending their tax dollars,” said Obernolte. “Making it easier for the public to access these reports online gives them the tools they need to judge how state government is doing. More disclosure empowers the people to hold government officials accountable.”
A third measure, (House Resolution 14 – Melendez) would limit the number of bills legislators can carry in a two-year session to 20, rather than 40 as allowed today.
Two proposals authored by Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, would tackle problems in the state’s current budget process, encouraging greater oversight and long-term planning.
One measure (Assembly Concurrent Resolution 45) would introduce more cost-oversight in state spending by switching to “zero-based budgeting” for the 40 largest state agencies and departments. Under zero-based budgeting, all of a department’s spending is reviewed and must be justified, not just the changes from last year’s spending. This year, the Assembly is applying zero-based budgeting to the University of California budget.
The other bill (Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5) would create a two-year budget process. The first year of a legislative session would focus on the budget and oversight, while the second year would focus on policy legislation.
“My legislation gets to the root of many of the problems in our budget process, namely lack of oversight and vision,” said Grove. “They will help lawmakers better plan for the future with a long-term lens instead of slapping band-aids on spending issues from year-to-year. It will also help to weed out wasteful and unnecessary spending and save the taxpayers money.”
In light of the recent political scandals that have called many state lawmakers’ ethics into question, another bill authored by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, (Assembly Bill 289) would strengthen protections for legislative staff who want to report unlawful behavior that they may witness on the job.
“It's imperative to remind ourselves that, as legislators, we are not above the law and our employees have an equal responsibility to protect our state,” said Melendez. “With past illegal and felonious actions of elected leaders, this bill is the right thing to do, unless someone has something to hide.”
