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| California Legislature on the verge of major achievements |
| By latimes.com |
| Published: 09/03/2009 |
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Lawmakers need to take small steps toward compromise to reach decisions on significant bills involving water, renewable energy and prisons. The Legislature is on the verge of two major achievements -- on prisons and water -- if lawmakers can be calm and rational during the final week of this year's regular session. That means cooling the heated rhetoric -- particularly the staff-produced nastiness -- and sustaining an amiable climate for compromise. It also means settling for the merely significant rather than insisting on the spectacular. It's about what is politically feasible, not what's pure fantasy. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will need to be a partner, if not a leader. Incrementalism goes against his nature. He's a giant-leap type of guy. But he's also a lame duck running out of room. Leaps may no longer be possible, if they ever were. After all, one of Schwarzenegger's proudest accomplishments -- lowering workers' compensation costs for business in his rookie year -- was partly the result of incrementalism begun under Gov. Gray Davis. Besides prisons and water, there's another important bill with long-term consequences that's nearing passage. It's about renewable energy. Under the measure, by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), 33% of the electricity produced by California utilities by 2020 would have to come from renewable energy sources. The fight is over how much of the renewable energy could be generated out of state. Labor unions are pushing for mostly in-state generation, as is Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Read More. |
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