Opposites like looser term limits

Deirdre Newman

What can a leading liberal mayor and a powerful conservative

Republican agree on about how legislators can navigate California

through its horrendous state budget crisis?

Not much, except that term limits severely restrict legislators’

ability to lead the state through a crisis of this magnitude.

“The challenge of the budget crisis for legislators are

handicapped because of an absence of stability,” said Willie Brown,

mayor of San Francisco.

Brown and Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte provided insight

from their opposite ends of the political spectrum at an event

Thursday benefiting UC Irvine’s Center for the Study of Democracy.

The center, which sponsors research and education with the goal of

improving the democratic process in the United States and expanding

democracy around the world, recently established fellowships honoring

Brown and Brulte.

The event was the first to raise funds for the fellowships. The

lively and entertaining discussion garnered about $100,000, which

will benefit students over the next three to four years.

Brown said he believes the solution to the approximately

$35-billion budget deficit is for legislators to transcend

partisanship and work toward the common good of the state.

“[Legislators] really have to make up their minds on what will be

the delivery system and what will be delivered and how it will be

paid for,” Brown said. “None of that can be affected by which

political party is doing it. It has to be the whole operation.”

Brulte offered four specific suggestions: slap a moratorium on any

new laws that hurt business; repeal laws that are driving companies

out of the state; enact most of Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed budget

cuts; and freeze spending for a year.

“I don’t think we should raise taxes in a weak economy,” Brulte

said. “It’s like putting leeches on a patient.”

To resolve the perceived problems created by term limits, Brulte

suggested increasing the time allowed in the assembly from six years

to eight, while Brown recommended giving voters a chance to keep a

representative in office who has accumulated a vast amount of

experience and knowledge.

Nhu Ngocong, a graduate student at the center, said she gleaned

some important knowledge from the discussion.

“I learned a lot about the budget and different perspectives, but

politics is politics, and they can say anything up there,” Ngocong

said. “We have to wait to see what they will do.”