Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Congressman Devin Nunes, a Republican from the Central Valley, describes California as an economic basket case and outlines, by my count, five ballot initiatives that he believes are needed to fix the state. Why should anyone care? Because Nunes, while little known to most Californians, is one of California's more thoughtful Republican politicians, and he has the ability to raise money to pursue at least a couple of these ideas at the ballot.

I only wish his five ideas were fresher. He wants to bust the legislature down to part-time status (long a fantasy wish of the right), a two-year budget (which would force more long-term planning, but hardly would be a game changer given the state's deep, structural budget problems), a measure that would automatically enact the governor's budget if the legislature doesn't pass one on time (a politically counter-productive proposal since it would unite all kinds of constituencies against it. A similar concept was a part of Prop 76, one of the Schwarzenegger-backed reforms that went down to defeat in the 2005 special election), a new spending limit that holds growth to inflation (which is too severe in a state with a growing population like California's), and a measure mandating the refund to taxpayers of any budget surplus. Nunes's proposals suggest he doesn't believe that California may have under-funded critical infrastructure and some essential services. If he pushes these initiatives, he'll discover that majorities of California voters see things differently. Politically, the only two with a chance are the part-time legislature and the two-year budget.