Four decades strong: the 1990s: the best and the worst.

• Author: Kurtz, Karl
• Position: 40 YEARS

With apologies to Charles Dickens, the 1990s were the best of times and the worst of times for state legislatures. They were the best because amazing new technologies improved how we communicate and manage information. A booming economy lifted everyone's boat. A brave optimism about "reinventing government" prevailed. Profound changes in welfare policy enjoyed bipartisan support. And sea changes in politics increased party competition across the nation.

Why the worst? Legislatures were "under siege." A distrustful public imposed term limits on lawmakers in 21 states. Citizens were routinely bypassing the legislative process with voter initiatives. The Supreme Court limited states' ability to tax sales outside their boundaries. Federalism developed a difficult-to-deal-with dual personality. And lawmakers in a half dozen states were caught in corruption scandals.

Technology Touches All

Technological changes swept through American life in the 1990s, profoundly affecting state legislatures along the way. Stories from State Legislatures magazine illustrate the evolution.

A 1991 article touted the Michigan Senate as the first in the nation to have computers on members' desks that allowed them to vote using a touch screen, perform word processing, create spreadsheets and file documents--all on bulky black-and-white monitors. Yet, the article made no mention of e-mail or the World Wide Web.

Three years later, the magazine answered "What is the Internet?" by explaining the intricacies of gopher servers, Telnet, Usenet (remember those?) and electronic mail. In 1995 the magazine reported that 41 states offered bill information through the Internet. Then, in 1996, a cover story cutely titled, "coNEcTed: Welcome to the Web," opened the floodgates, and stories on the Web ("a wonderland there inside your computer") followed regularly, informing readers on everything from state taxes on Internet services to sex on the 'Net.

Pressure Cooker Still Hissed

Despite these internal improvements in the legislative process, legislatures were under extreme pressure from the outside. Voter initiatives in the late 1970s and early 1980s had started a lasting trend of restricting the power and authority of legislatures through tax and spending limits. This byproduct of public distrust in all-things government expanded dramatically in 1990 when voters in California, Colorado and Oklahoma imposed the first term limits on state legislators.

Ironically, even though Congress...