'Gutless and amend'

OC Register

The California Assembly’s self-proclaimed “historic” vote on gay marriage Tuesday epitomized many of the things that are wrong in state government and in this final free-for-all before the first year of the legislative session ends.

Rather than dealing with the substantive economic and governmental issues that should be the primary concern of state legislators, the lawmakers were consumed with a divisive social issue. Rather than following the rules for vetting and approving legislation, the legislators used legislative tricks, in this case the controversial “gut and amend” procedure, to bring back to the Assembly a bill that had been rejected by that body a month earlier.

“Gut and amend” is when legislators try to ram through a pet bill, bypassing the normal hearing process, by taking another bill that has moved ahead and gutting it completely and sticking in entirely new language, calling that new language an amendment. It’s an acceptable practice, perhaps, when a major new event happens that requires a quick response, and the proper deadline for introducing new legislation has passed.

When asked what is different between now and the time the samesex marriage bill was previously killed by the Assembly, the author, Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, pointed to the passage of the bill by the Senate and the passage of similar legislation in Canada and Spain. Those are interesting developments, but they do not justify the “gut and amend.”

The legislation is more for grandstanding and national publicity than for addressing concerns of Californians, as evidenced by the supportive Democrats who gave grandiose and self-congratulatory speeches. The debate was punctuated by emotionalism and personal stories, rather than by an understanding of the limits and responsibilities of government.

Too bad the Legislature didn’t choose to simply deregulate marriage. The state should no more be in the business of sanctioning personal relationships than it should be in the business of regulating our lives. Unfortunately, virtually every other piece of legislation the Assembly voted on Tuesday was designed to increase government power over businesses and personal transactions. Most of those bills were approved, often on party-line votes, with little or no discussion.

While businesses flee the state because of excessive regulation, the Assembly creates new means for workers and consumers to sue businesses. While the state’s education system suffers from excessive bureaucracy and government management, the Assembly passed a bill that forces the state Board of Education to impose a new “tolerance” curriculum in every school.

Don’t expect any talk about limiting government, reducing taxes, privatizing services, reining in pension abuses, reforming ill-performing government programs or building new infrastructure to meet the state’s growing needs, either. Nope, it’s far more important to be blathering about gay marriage, an issue that will be determined by the courts and public opinion, not by a Democratic-dominated Legislature that has a heightened sense of its own importance.