Perhaps speaking tongue-in-cheek:
WAILEA, Hawaii — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that he would like to make the California Legislature part-time so lawmakers would not have as much freedom to create so many "strange bills."Or perhaps not. The story is on the front-page of today's LA Times . More:The Legislature "already doesn't have enough to do," the governor said, adding that full-time status was proving an obstacle to productive, responsible work.
"I want to make the Legislature a part-time Legislature," the governor said. "Spending so much time in Sacramento, without anything to do, then out of that comes strange bills. I like them when they're scrambling and they really have to work hard. Give them a short period of time. Then good work gets done, rather than hanging. That's when they start getting creative with things."
California's Legislature began working year-round in 1966. The state is one of four with full-time legislatures, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania are the others. There are seven states where lawmakers put in roughly 80% of the time it takes to do a full-time job: Alaska, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Wisconsin.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 7, 2004 09:32 AMSchwarzenegger used his movie background to illustrate the point. The best work got done in compressed time frames, he said. "Pre-production is three months," he said. "You don't have more than that…. Post-production is three months. And you have to be out next summer. Then people perform. 'Oh my God, now we have deadlines.' That's when people perform best. Same with legislators. You have a deadline…. Everyone works. Works like a jewel."