Voters also would have to live with the consequences of their budget decisions. "Now, the voters get to be as big a blowhards as the politicians," Ross asserts.
The governor could take out his line-item veto pen once the electorate sent him a budget.
Well, where to begin?
First, I thought one loud message from California voters on May 19 -- the few who cast ballots and the many who didn't -- was that they wanted the Legislature and governor to solve all the budget problems themselves. Voters are tired of Sacramento bucking complex decisions to them. And they've never seen anything as complicated as a 1,300-page state budget.
"Voters might find it refreshing," Ross counters. "And you could summarize it in 100 words. Do it in a paragraph."
Second, it seems a game rigged for Democrats, who greatly outnumber Republicans in voter registration.
That's democracy, Ross replies. Anyway, independent voters are fast gaining on both parties.
Third, isn't this just a full employment act for political consultants? They'd be guaranteed yet another ballot measure fight in every general election.
Ross counts at least a dozen budget "reform" measures that have been on state ballots during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's watch. "Give me a break," he says.
Fourth, our republican form of representative democracy has worked pretty well for 220 years, despite recent errors in California, and shouldn't be benched. "Baseball arbitration" as a budget fix won't get to first base. And Ross seems to know it.
"I'm trying to challenge today's operating assumptions," he says. "The system needs to be turned on its head."
His novel idea's value is that it could stimulate thought and crowd chatter.
The current chatter is mostly about a proposed state constitutional convention, California's first in 130 years. The purpose would be to rewrite outdated, impractical constitutional provisions dealing with government, elections, the budget -- take a fresh look at California's needs in the 21st century.
The growing consensus outside the state Capitol is that Sacramento can't reform itself. It won't. And even if it would, the public wouldn't accept the product as credible.
So the Bay Area Council, a business group, is pushing to place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot calling for the convention.
Problem is, who gets to be a delegate?
