Unicameral Govt suggested for California

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33790, 12 March 1975, Page 24

Unicameral Govt suggested for California

(By

JOHN N. HUTCHISON)

SACRAMENTO (California)

In the face of opposition similar to that w'hich many New Zealanders will remember, a member of the California Legislature is campaigning to convert the State to unicameral Government,

Only one state in the United States — Nebraska, in the Middle West — is governed by a single chamber, activated after 24 years of argument in 1937 and working satisfactorily ever since. All the other 49 states have upper and lower houses patterned on the Federal Government in Washington.

Senator Arlen Gregorio, whose 'half million con-: stituents are in San Mateo j County, just south of San Francisco, first introduced a bill last year to establish a single 99-member Senate to replace the present Assembly of SO members and Senate of 40. The proposal was killed in the Senate Rules Committee.

Now a newly elected and somewhat more liberal ; Legislature is in session in I the state capital, Sacra- ; mento, and he has inj troduced the bill again, this ; time, with some new and inI fluential supporters, inI eluding a dozen legislative ; colleagues and the state’s ! new chief executive, the j young, vigorous and in--1 novative Governor Edmund !G. Brown, jun. POPULAR VOTE Opposition to the measure is publicly expressed in noble concerns over the need for equitable representation of all citizens’ interests, and the safeguards against injudicious legislation provided, at least in theory, by the checks and balances each house now ! provides against the other. I Both houses are elected by popular vote from geographical districts. Senator Gre-j igorio is not impressed, i “A simplified, consolidated legislature would be i much more visible and accessible to the public, whose voice is not often enough heard • in Sacramento,” he says. “Under my plan, each member would have about 200,000 constituents instead of as many as a half million, and they could be in closer couch with him.” He believes a unicameral legislature would be considerably less expensive to operate and would carry out its work much more efficiently and expeditiously. BIG OBSTACLE 1 The senator is clearly aware that the largest real 1 obstacle to his proposal is I rooted in the apprehension

of members of both bodies that the reorganisation, doing away with 21 of them, could make any of them vulnerable. In view of that powerful instinct for self-i preservation basic to most elected officials, he is con-1 sidering a course of action j alternative to the attempt to push his bill through the legislature. It is a process called the initiative. In California, as in other American states, the initiative is a process through which a specified percentage of voters, through signing petitions, can compel the state to hold an election on an issue which, if adopted, becomes law. The initiative has often been successful. Senator Gregorio believes that an active state-wide campaign would raise support for an initiative, and that the resulting public education would win over the electorate. He is considering such a campaign. NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM “I am interested in the unicameral process in other countries,” he said, in dis-; cussing the studies he and his staff have made while | drafting his proposed law, “but we are aware that unicameral legislatures such as that of New Zealand and those of the provinces of Canada are in many ways inapplicable, since they are functions of parliamentary rule. Our Federal and state systems comprise separate legislative, executive and judicial branches. Even so, I think we could learn a great deal from New Zealand's procedures.”