Orange County Register: Putting the legislature on (72-hour) notice

July 18, 2016 – Today, Kerry Jackson of the Pacific Research Institute wrote an opinion piece for the Orange County Register in support of Prop. 54, calling for greater openness in the legislative process and drawing attention to the initiative’s diverse coalition.

Below are excerpts from Kerry Jackson’s piece, “Putting the legislature on (72-hour) notice”:

“There may be light coming to the lawmaking process through the Legislature Transparency Amendment ballot measure on Nov. 8. If the initiative – the product of former lawmaker Sam Blakeslee and Charles Munger Jr.’s longtime efforts – is authorized for a constitutional amendment, the Legislature will be prohibited from passing a bill until the text has been in print and published online for 72 hours prior to the vote.

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Support for the amendment ripples across the political spectrum. For instance, Common Cause, the California Forward Action Fund and the League of California Cities, all of which are from the left, are on board, as are the California Taxpayers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, on the right.

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Legislators working under these constraints won’t be able to so easily mislead the public, particularly at the end of sessions when laws are rammed through while the media and public are in the dark.

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California needs a fresh direction. It should be a model of government openness that the rest of the country can follow. The sanitizing effects of sunshine would sharply cut the stream of sloppy public policy that’s been flowing from Sacramento for decades – and taking the rest of the state downstream with it.”

Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/2aodEb7

To learn more about Prop. 54 or to join the coalition, visit the website at www.yesprop54.org.

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