Unicameral or Bicameral State Legislatures?

[Katzenjammer12]

Here is a paper that talks about California considering a unicameral legislature a few years ago.  There are only a few major unicameral legislatures (except the Communist party).  Nebraska is one.  New Zealand has one.

As a compromise to get the United States going and with historical precedents of the noble classes versus commoners in other countries, two body legislatures gave everyone a place at the trough without any one getting the lion's share.  Big states got the power of their population in the House and little states got to defend their territory in the Senate.  In GB the Commons is the  major body but the Lords has some power to balance them.

States had two houses, one based on population and one based on geography (often counties).  

Reynolds vs Simms says the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution says everyone has to be represented by population - so why do we need a Senate at the state level?

This paper focuses on California but the meat is about a general overview.  Unicameral legislation has been considered in Minnesota recently.

Read the paper, or at least skim it, and tell whether you think the benefits of one outweigh the other and whether it would work for your state.

https://avaalexandar.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/unicameral-v-bicameral-pros-and-con.pdf

[BA Deere]

I don`t have time to read the link, but just a comment.  It seems that whether a state Rep or a US Representative, they tend to better have the ear of the populous, where as senators tend to be more standoffish.   By combining the two, my fear would be the representatives would negatively fall on the side of the senate and government would be more detached.  

Now with Nebraska, maybe they can pull it off better because they are more rural and sensible.  However I hear property taxes are crazy in Nebraska...so I don`t know, it isn`t exactly paradise there either.  I have to brag about my own state of Iowa, we are really getting it right.   Good people in office right now, all doing their jobs.  

[bruce MN]

On record here as a big fan of the Nebraska Uni system and in general the way the state is run.

Have said previously, but anywhere that can send Senators as stellar as Kerry, Hagel and Sasse...a bipartisan mix, to D.C. has to have a solid political tradition. Not to quote a specific number, but I believe that NE also sits at or very near the top in % of citizens who vote election years. 

[rsbs]

Yes, Iowa is doing things a lot more right than our north star state, but hopefully we are on the right track now. Land taxes are absolutely nuts...an 80 by St. James MN is listed for sale with $72 per acre taxes on it. That used to be the rental rate. With $3 corn, it takes 24 bushels off the top just to pay the land taxes on that piece of ground.

We have a pretty big  tax surplus up here too....MN didn't allow Farmers and other business owners the Federal depreciation  income tax writeoffs so they collected a bonanza there and now one side wants to return some of it to those that paid it in, and the other side wants to spend it. Guess which side is which in two guesses, and the first one doesn't count.

Sales tax....about 7% and the liberals keep wanting to expand it....Gov Goofy especially, but backed off.

Fuel Taxes, Car license taxes....you name it, Mn figures out how to tax it.

[bruce MN]

We still se the paper from there . Will watch for the news about it remaining perpetually unsold. 

Quite ocertain that oppressive liability isn't why it's being sold. 

[WCMO]

Might have been said before, but in many states that are heavily rural in geography, we need to be able to adequately represent the needs and ideologies of the rural areas, otherwise the few/several large cities in the state would essentially determine everything for the state as a whole.  The State Senate helps to resolve this problem.

[bruce MN]

Good friend in ag from over in east central MO tells me that the Legislature there is hell bent on making the state over into Kansas or Louisiana.

????

[Katzenjammer12]

"Might have been said before, but in many states that are heavily rural in geography, we need to be able to adequately represent the needs and ideologies of the rural areas, otherwise the few/several large cities in the state would essentially determine everything for the state as a whole.  The State Senate helps to resolve this problem."

I'm afraid that is wrong, at least in Iowa.  The Supreme Court decision cited above got rid of the Senators representing areas.  In Iowa, Senators are based on population not on geography.  So, the same people who vote in the House representatives in Polk County (Des Moines) are the same who vote in the Senators.  I was told each Senator lines up with two House districts.

State legislatures are therefore not at all like the  US Congress, where Senators are based on geography (states).

It doesn't make any sense to have two sets of people who represent the same constituency on the same basis.

But do you think any of the legislators will vote to do away with their own job? 

[WCMO]

Actually, I think you're right -- appears representation for both state chambers in Missouri is based on population, though the numbers and therefore areas they represent are not the same, and terms are not the same.  It does look like the Missouri House agreed to reduce the number of representatives starting in 2020.  Crap, I learned something new today, not sure I like what I learned.