SACRAMENTO — Put down the pitchforks. Stop hurling the bricks. Politicians in the state Capitol have not been total screw-ups this year.
Yes, the state budget was a record 85 days late in getting enacted and was roundly hooted. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger angered many -- mostly Democratic legislators -- by vetoing a record-high 35% of the bills that reached his desk.
The Legislature began the year by failing to pass the governor's universal healthcare bill that was overly ambitious given the plunging economy. And the governor's promise of 2008 becoming "the year of education reform" turned into just another broken New Year's resolution.
Pretty gloomy. But the scene wasn't all ugly. In some spots, it was downright visionary.
In fact, there were several admirable instances of politicians legislating the way they're ideally supposed to, using the system the way it's set up, by calmly conferring and compromising.
The No. 1 example was Sen. Darrell Steinberg's steering into law his sweeping "smart growth" proposal to control suburban sprawl, build homes closer to downtown and reduce commuter driving, thus decreasing climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.
Like Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the legislation isn't flashy. It's wonky. And substantive. California needed it 50 years ago.
There'll be incentives for communities and developers to compress growth. Communities will get first dibs on government transportation money. Residential home-builders will be granted relief from environmental red tape.
Steinberg worked for two years to build what he calls "the coalition of the impossible": local governments, home-builders and environmentalists. But he stopped short of trying to satisfy every interest.
Commercial property owners and manufacturers also sought environmental streamlining. But that could have cost Steinberg the support of environmentalists. The senator settled on a bill he could get passed as time was running out in the legislative session.
Then he had to sell the governor. There was business opposition, including from the influential California Chamber of Commerce. It helped that Steinberg had been elected the next Senate leader starting in December.
It helped especially this way: Schwarzenegger badly wants the Legislature to pass a hefty water bond measure next year, something in the $11-billion range.
