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Hertzberg
on Regionalism
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of cars ahead of you: too many to count. Waiting list for
affordable housing: years. Arriving at work on time: harder than
it used to be. Getting voters to envision regional governance as a
practical solution: priceless.
“Approaching
our problems on a regional basis is one of the most important ways
in which we are going to succeed in delivering services and
delivering what’s necessary for the quality of life for our 35+
million Californians”, said Speaker Emeritus Robert Hertzberg,
D-Los Angeles.
But
most Californians don’t even know what “regionalism” means,
and unless Shaq or some other media mega-star starts to appear in
commercials espousing it, how can you hope to create fundamental
change in the way California governs itself? Hertzberg has hope,
and he shared his perception of the problem and the solutions in a
June 19 address to the San Diego Dialogue at the Westin Horton
Plaza Hotel.
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| The
Challenge |
 The structural barriers to regionalism are
formidable. First and foremost, people who are engaged in serious
debate and dialogue are not getting the message out, because the
media is not covering these political discussions.
Politicians need to get elected, and they need
media attention so voters will recognize their names. But the
media don’t make money covering weighty, theoretical issues;
they want good visuals and fast cars. That creates a disincentive
for politicians to talk about the complex issues, and instead to
focus on issues where they can get the media coverage they feel
they need.
more
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| The
Good News |
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Despite the structural barriers to regionalism,
Hertzberg sees hope on the horizon. He identifies “a
fundamental change in two respects in the nature of people
that are getting elected to state government.”
There was a time that an Assembly seat was a
lifetime job that you would ultimately pass on to a
legislative staffer, who may not have real-world business
experience or even broad government experience. In addition,
there existed a tension between the state and the local
politician, in part because the local politician was
constantly asking for money for their jurisdiction, and in
part because of the fear that the local guy was going to try
to knock you down and run for your seat.
Then came term limits...
more
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| The
End-Game |
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So how do
we get to regionalism? Hertzberg doesn’t know when it will
come, but says it’s coming, and, he says, “the real
end-game always, always, always, always is about money.”
The financial structure of California is “nothing less
than completely dysfunctional.” The introduction of
Proposition 13 created reliance upon other, less predictable
taxes to make up the state’s income. The large variance in
state revenue from one year to the next leads a fear of
investing in infrastructure, and Hertzberg feels the that
the only way to fix it is to “go regional as a taxing
entity… [because] people don’t want to send their money
to Washington or to Sacramento or to the moon. They will
spend it locally…”
And
so Hertzberg predicts that “what started with Proposition
13 will end with whatever Proposition number it will be, and
it will be a substantial and demonstrative restructuring of
government that devolves a huge amount of the power from the
state government to regions and moves power out of the
counties into regions.”
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| Additional
Resources |
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For more on the
event, visit the following:
North
County Times Story - Hertzberg: Regional taxes could
come to state
San
Diego Dialogue -
information from their website
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