New reform group offers plan to end deficit spending by California

It requires only intellectually honest and civil discourse.

"Just a personal observation," says former Washington insider Leon Panetta, co-chairman of the group called California Forward. "Part of the problem across the street [at the Capitol] is that they don't spend a lot of time talking to each other."

Panetta laughs, but he can't be more serious.

The group's other co-chairman, Thomas V. McKernan, chief executive of the Automobile Club of Southern California, quickly adds that even among Capitol politicians lined up on the same side, there's not much productive dialogue.

Indeed, the Republican governor and GOP legislators don't get along. Relations between Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly have been chilly, heated or barely existent.

"They don't trust one another," chimes in Bill Hauck, a member of the group's leadership council and president of the California Business Round Table.

"I'm not one of these 'good ol` days' people," asserts Hauck, a longtime Capitol hand who has been a senior advisor to governors and legislative leaders of both parties. "But there was a time when you could get a group of legislators in a room -- Democrats and Republicans -- and you'd get eventually to 'the greater good of California.' Not always, but . . . today, given the lack of communication, lack of trust and the complications of California, we're not getting that enough."

One notorious result is the endless red ink flowing into a $15-billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The trio had just returned, on an uncomfortably hot, windy day, from outlining their proposed budget reforms to legislative leaders and gubernatorial advisors. Panetta seems to have found the Capitol more depressing than he had envisioned.

"The reaction we've been getting," he reports, "is, 'Look, these [reforms] are important, but how do you think we could solve the budget problem this year?' "

Another laugh.

And what causes him to conclude that the politicians aren't talking enough to each other? "Because they were essentially asking us," 'What did so and so say? Where do you think this is headed?'

"It's like, wait a minute, we just came in for today."