Capri & Clay - The second year of the legislative session started off with a busy January. Between the State of the State, the Governor’s proposed January budget for 2010/11 and the deadline for language to be into Legislative Counsel, we have been busy.

The Governor had some creative ideas in his annual State of the State address, however, as in the past it is unlikely any of these ideas will come to fruition in the legislature and are already being questioned by the Legislative Analyst office (LAO). The LAO is also questioning some of his budget proposals as well. The Governor and Legislative leadership spent nearly a week in Washington D.C. lobbying to get California’s “fair share” of the tax dollars from the Federal Government. Unfortunately, this appears to be an unsuccessful and futile attempt and as a result additional cuts to programs are expected. The current budget year is $6-8 billion short and while the Governor has called for a special session to make cuts for the current year, no real efforts on the part of the legislature to address this has occurred. The state is an estimated $14 billion short in revenues for 2010/11 and will be expected to make additional cuts which will be just as painful as in the past as it is unexpected that the Republicans will vote for additional tax increases.

February 19th is the last day to introduce bills for the 2009-10 Legislative session. In the coming weeks please keep an eye on the weekly reports we send on the referred bill lists as many new bills will be included on that list that may impact your interests.