by Karl Kurtz
In the middle of a day-long joint hearing by California's recently appointed Assembly and Senate select committees on improving state government, Bob Naylor, a former Assembly minority (Republican) leader, said, "This is the best prolonged discussion of the legislative process, in which members have stayed attentive, that I have ever seen in California." Fifteen members were present for most of the day and asked challenging and interesting questions of a dozen or so panelists.
The most colorful, provocative and occasionally outrageous testimony was given by State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who was formerly attorney general and president pro tem of the Senate. A few of his best one-liners:
- Referring to the cumbersome system of checks and balances in American democracy, he said, "We're part of a system that was designed not to work." See Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee.
- In relation to a proposal to allow committee chairs to decide which bills would be heard (California has a practice of hearing all bills), he said that he wouldn't want a committee chair to determine which of his bills were heard. "My bills were my babies. I loved all of them."
- "As someone who has served both in the legislative and executive branches, I can say that legislative oversight is often unfair to the executive."
- "Maybe we should have graduated limits on bill introductions. You know, first-term members could introduce just a few bills, second-term members a few more, and so on..."
- Referring to the inexperience problem in the Assembly created by term limits and evidence that Assembly committees stop far fewer bills than they did before term limits: "Two-thirds of the bills that come out of the Assembly should never see the light of day.... Stop it, stop it, stop it! Nancy Reagan was right: You should just say no."
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