It looks like the Legislature won’t be part-time at any point in the near future after a controversial initiative campaign threw in the towel. Without sufficient funds, proponents of an initiative to convert the Legislature to part-time status have announced that the signature-gathering effort has been shut down, which means that the July 2nd deadline will pass without enough petitions being submitted. Major backers of the effort included Ted Costa of People’s Advocate and Republican Assemblywoman Shannon Grove of Bakersfield.

The initiative also would have significantly reduced the pay of legislators; instead of an annual salary of $95,000, officials would have received $1,500 a month.  Grove argued all along that the Legislature needed to be part-time because the legislative body had steadily deteriorated and been infiltrated by professional politicians. In order to qualify, 807,615 valid voter signatures had to be collected, but the campaign fell far short of that amount due to money running low.

Proponents have said they may re-file the initiative with the state at some point in the future with the aim of qualifying for the November ballot. See more here.