It's too bad that there are so few left in Sacramento who remember the late 1970s, when a similarly arrogant and out-of-touch Legislature, abetted by a distracted governor, suddenly found themselves buried in an avalanche of voter anger that led to the historic passage of Proposition 13.

A similar revolt is brewing in California today. Its Boston Tea Party was held last November, when voters angrily dismissed all eight propositions on the special elections ballot engineered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Its version of Concord and the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" may come in November, when so many of these elected leaders ask for another term.

Party politics, special interest lobbying and the absence of any sense of shared purpose are the order of the day in Sacramento. The state's needs are immense, because the neglect has gone on so long, yet the best our elected leaders in the Legislature could muster this week were conflicting bills offering small amounts of funding for flood control and education. Neither measure offered a dime for highways, roads, transit needs, bridge repair, port improvements, hospitals or water supplies.

That was particularly discouraging to residents of the Valley, since the governor's original $68 billion bond proposal set aside a full $1 billion to fix Highway 99. That shrank to $750 million, then disappeared altogether. Our elected leaders are apparently content to let the Valley's main artery crumble to dust rather than address its dangerous and costly disintegration.

Republicans -- seemingly determined to reinforce their irrelevance in state politics -- insisted that certain projects be exempted from the California Environment Quality Act, though there is little evidence CEQA has slowed construction of infrastructure.

The GOP was also insisting that the sales tax on gasoline -- separate from gas taxes -- be permanently earmarked for transportation. Republicans know this earmark would further tie the hands of legislators in tight budget years, yet they pushed it anyway.

By making a bond package conditional on certain policy reforms, Republicans handed a gift to Schwarzenegger's die-hard opponents. Democratic Party zealots hoped to hurt Schwarzenegger by torpedoing all the elements of his bond proposal. As usual, Republicans played into their hands.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said lawmakers now have an opportunity to do a better job for the November ballot. "I'm very confident we will have something we'll all be proud of," he said.

We doubt it.

Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, wasn't hopeful. "At this point, it's very difficult to be optimistic," he said.

That's easier to believe.