One explanation given for the trouble they’ve had getting work done in Sacramento is that state legislators don’t know what they’re doing. Should term limits be abolished in order to have more experienced representation?
Term limits are one third of the problem. The other two thirds are these:
Gerrymandering, which has created a bunch of safe districts, and the requirement of a super majority to pass tax or budget bills.
The idea of changing the third one will bring screams of anguish from those who think there is a free lunch and we can run government forever without raising taxes. Before you start yelling, look at how much your income per hour has grown since 1978. What makes you think that government can live on a 1 percent per year increase?
Term limits was a classic example of a remedy for a problem that did not address the problem. The problem was not that we had legislators who had been there too long. The problem was that we had legislators from safe districtswho had been there too long. The safe districts were the problem, not the longevity of the legislators. Some long-term legislators are quite valuable. Others are useless. Most tribes revere their wise elders and ignore their foolish ones. Because of these safe districts, the foolish ones seem to be bulletproof. When you add that to the requirement of a super majority to get anything done, you have a brass-bound, double-stitched, copper-riveted formula for stalemate. And that is exactly what we have created for ourselves, largely thorough the use of the initiative process. An anthropologist from Mars who looked at our system would go back with a short report: “Those people are crazy.”
Dugan Barr has practiced law in Redding since 1967. He has tried more than 200 civil jury cases to verdict. He is married and has five children. The offices of Barr and Mudford, LLP, are at 1824 Court St. in Redding and can be reached at 243-8008.
