Richie Ross, the Sacramento power broker, lays out his plan for fixing California's budget system -- the baseball arbitration system is his model -- in George Skelton's column in today's Los Angeles Times.

The gist: just as players and teams submit salary proposals to an arbitrator when they can't agree on a contract, Democrats and Republicans would submit their own budgets to voters. Whichever drew more votes would become the budget.

Problems with this idea? Several. But given the fondness California voters have shown for spending far more than they're taxed, it's a good bet that voters would choose -- over and over -- the more fiscally irresponsible of the two budgets they were presented.

He explains why to George Skelton. The governor is interested in looking at changes to the requirement of a two-thirds vote of the legislature to pass a budget. But he also wants to transform the executive branch, which wasn't on the agenda of many folks attending this week's summit in Sacramento on the idea. Schwarzenegger wants to get rid of the independently elected constitutional officers -- the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the controller, the treasurer -- who sometimes make it hard for him to administer the government.

As a policy matter, Schwarzenegger has a point. There'd be more accountability if the governor could appoint the people in those roles. As a political matter, Schwarzenegger may have hurt the convention effort by saying that. Opponents of the idea will deride the convention as a power grab by a governor whose approval rating is at 33 percent in a new poll.

Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton has an interesting idea for stimulating the economy: Have the federal government restore the tax deduction for state sales taxes.

In California, this would blunt some of the blow from the expected sales tax hike to help fill an estimated $40 billion shortfall in the state budget over this year and next. Skelton argues that the credit would spur consumer spending -- making it more of a pure stimulus. The sales tax credit existed before the 1986 tax bill. Under President Bush, taxpayers could take a credit for either state income tax or state sales tax, but not both.

Los Angeles Times columnist/legend George Skelton has an excellent piece this morning on Karen Bass, the Assembly speaker. Most of the discussion is about Bass' effort to put together a tax reform commission. The good news is that she's pushing it. The bad news is that "the boys" -- the governor and other legislative leaders -- are holding it up until after the budget is finished. And that means a delay until next year at the earliest. Yes, the legislature may pass a budget in August or September, but voters likely will have to sign on to elements of it in November. If voters balk, we could be redoing the budget at Christmastime.

For followers of blockbuster democracy, the most interesting part of the column comes near the end, where Skelton quotes Bass on her plans to sponsor a $300 million ballot initiative in 2010 to fund foster care programs. She's decided on a funding source for the money; a tax on candy. Skelton's only mistake is not getting an answer to the next question: What does she consider candy? Certainly nothing made by See's, with its headquarters here in Los Angeles.