Hd — Goldilocks

Legislature

For the precious few out there interested in state government, there must have been considerable anticipation and in some quarters, outright dread about what a Democratic governor and a Democratic-controlled Legislature would drum up this year. As it turns out, however, not all that much came out of Sacramento, which, given the booming economy and a generally upbeat attitude among Californians, is probably just as well.

Following the lead of Gov. Gray Davis, this was a Legislature that’s been careful in picking and choosing its spots. Health care quickly became the top priority, and after weeks of closed-door negotiations among industry officials and patients-rights advocates, a package of reforms was approved that provide consumers with easier access to second opinions and the right to sue their managed care providers for damages.

It turned out to be neither the windfall that consumer groups had been hoping for, nor the disaster that the health care industry was bracing for. In short, it was centrist legislation for these most centrist of times.

The rest of the scorecard also reveals a Goldilocks-like approach measures that are neither too hot, nor too cold. Chief among them was a package of education reforms that calls for more accountability by teachers, students and administrators; and a series of gun-control bills that includes a toughened ban on assault rifles.

Less successful were measures deemed to step up government intrusion. The effort, for example, to provide tax incentives to entertainment production companies if location shooting is done in California received little broad-based support. And when Davis signed the state’s $81 billion budget in June (which came without the weeks-long delays that characterized previous budget fights), he also vetoed nearly $600 million in requests from Democrats.

There was the occasional miscue, such as capitulating with labor on a bill to reinstate daily overtime pay rather than taking a more flexible approach in basing extra hours on anything over the standard 40-hour week. Under the old system, if a worker took off four hours early one day, he could make up that time later in the week without overtime kicking in. That can still be done under the new system, but only at the initiation of the employee and with extra paperwork to be filed with the state.

In fact, the legislation is quickly creating a paperwork nightmare and for little purpose. So much of today’s workplace is based on flexibility that can accommodate the chaotic schedules of two-income families. The new overtime law has no place in this sort of environment.

There also was a flurry of suspect legislation passed at the last minute ranging from the creation of state panels charged with identifying the causes of hate violence (do we really need a commission to figure that out?), to the financing of an extended (and really pointless) investigation by Attorney General Bill Lockyer into gasoline pricing practices by the oil companies.

But such errors in judgment generally turned out to be the exception. By and large, legislators representing the state’s disparate constituencies are accepting a middle ground or at least not being obstructionists in setting their agendas. As for Gray Davis, he understands all too well that the public’s appetite for government initiatives these days is limited, at best.