Editorial: Legislature runs well, but bill limits needed

It can be perilous to speculate how well a new voter-imposed time limit is working for the 1999 Legislature, considering the 120-day session just crossed its midpoint two weeks ago. But all indications so far are that senators and assemblymen are adjusting surprisingly well to the new time restriction, which shaves about one month off what was normally a six-month legislative session. With 45 days left in the session, significant progress already has been made on major issues, such as utility deregulation, consumer protections for homeowners and government ethics reform.

This doesn't mean, of course, that there isn't room for improvement in the legislative process. A story in Tuesday's Sun on the pace of the legislative session revealed a jarring statistic: Of the 980 bills introduced, 320 didn't make it out of committee by last Friday's deadline. Too many of the bills that died never had a realistic chance of passage -- some were just plain silly, while others dealt with issues the Legislature had no business addressing. Extraneous bills only serve to clutter the process and take time away from genuinely important legislation.

Currently the 21 senators can submit up to 24 total bill draft requests apiece, and the 42 assemblymen can each have 12 bill draft requests. Legislators aren't the only ones who contribute to the bottleneck, though, as state agencies, local governments and the judiciary also are allowed to submit their own bill draft requests. In response, the legislative leadership is working on a plan to reduce the number of bill draft requests for the next session. Unlike the past, the Legislature must now deal with a firm deadline on when its work must be done; legislation should be passed that acknowledges this reality and imposes some discipline regarding bill introductions. The Legislature should decrease the number of bills that can be introduced by legislators, local governments and state agencies so state lawmakers can spend the time needed on weightier issues.

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