Activist Kit 

California's Constitution - Time for Overhaul?

 

 

On August 18, 2009, Common Cause Western States Regional Director Derek Cressman testified before a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Elections Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments, and the Senate Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.  Cressman discussed the need for constitutional reform in California and how that reform might proceed.  Click here to read a transcript of Derek's testimony.  


 

California Common Cause Calls For Constitutional Convention; Plans For Passage Of The Fair Elections Act As First Step In Reforming California Government


The Board of California Common Cause has voted unanimously to support the call for a California Constitutional Convention.  "We support calling a Constitutional Convention as one of several possible methods for effectively and more holistically revising the California Constitution," read a statement adopted by the Board.


A consensus has developed in California that our state government is dysfunctional.  Gimick-loaded budgets that are never on time, IOUs and emergency financing, and billions in cuts to education and social service systems that were already underfunded---there really is no room left for debate that California is a state in crisis.


Here's the good news: With the passage of the redistricting reform initiative in 2008, we showed that good-government groups like California Common Cause can overcome the gridlock in Sacramento.  We now know how to work through the initiative process to achieve reforms that the Legislature is unable or unwilling to enact. 


Building on this win, we have a three-step, three-year plan that will help California turn the corner. 


Step 1 - Pass The California Fair Elections Act.  It begins in June 2010 with the passage of the California Fair Elections Act.  Big-monied special interests can no longer call the shots in California (notably, just last fall, the California Legislature passed corporate tax cuts that will cost the state $2 billion in revenue per year).  Lobbyists oppose the Fair Elections Act because it will give candidates for Secretary of State an alternative to the money chase.  That's why a diverse coalition supports the Act.  California Common Cause is committed to winning this long-needed reform.


Step 2 - Call A Constitutional Convention.  In November 2010, California voters should have the opportunity to pass two initiatives that are critical to restructuring California government.  The first will give voters the right to call a Constitutional Convention.  The second will actually call for the convention.  California Common Cause will work to ensure passage of these two initiatives and will push for a delegate selection process that is democratic and reflects the diversity of the California electorate.


Step 3 - Passing The Convention's Package Of Reforms.  The final step will be ensuring that the Constitutional Convention enacts the reforms this state needs to move forward.  Expanding the Fair Elections Act to all statewide and state legislative offices, fixing term limits, ending the profoundly anti-democratic requirement that budgets be passed by a 2/3rds vote in the Legislature, and reforming the initiative process---these are the reforms that a Constitutional Convention can achieve.  California Common Cause will lead the fight to pass these reforms at the Constitutional Convention and at the ballot box in 2012. 


This three-year plan will require a different level of engagement from all of us.  As a board, we've agreed to step up our commitment to California Common Cause.  And I am confident others will too.  Why?  Because we're living through a budgetary crisis, a government crisis, a democratic crisis that will touch all of us.  Our young children won't receive new textbooks until at least 2016.  College students, at least those fortunate enough not to be victims of enrollment cuts, will face steep tuition hikes at our once world-renowned universities.  And the 11.5 percent of Californians already unemployed will find a drastically underfunded social safety net riddled with holes. 

So please stay tuned to this website for more information, and join with us in reforming, remaking, and rebuilding California.  

 

 

Click here to view a powerpoint presentation about the Constitutional Convention process.