Carpi & Clay - The Legislature has been on break for the month of July (we like to refer to it as telecommuting since the legislature is on 24 hour call back to deal with the budget) and returned this past Monday, August 2nd. The legislature will work through the end of the month and finish up the 2010 legislative year on August 31st at midnight as per the California Constitution (only emergency measures can continue beyond the August 31st deadline and items within a special session called by the Governor).

There continues to be no budget deal, but there has been renewed activity in the Capitol since legislators returned on August 2nd. Democrats held a press conference today announcing their plan for a budget deal. The Governor blasted the proposal before it was officially announced and stated that a budget proposal that includes new taxes is “dead-on-arrival”. Last week, the Governor mused that if certain reforms weren’t addressed, that he might not sign a budget and leave it for the next Governor. So, this is shaping up to be a typical budget process-lots of finger pointing, press conferences, and not much action. We blame the lack of budget on the cool temperatures this summer in Sacramento – we have had only a handful of over 100 degree days, so the standing joke is that the temperature needs to go over 100 degrees for a week or so to get legislators in the right frame of mind to do a budget deal.

In tems of legislation, all of the regularly scheduled policy committee hearings have concluded and the two appropriations committees will hold the final suspense hearing sometime during the week of August 9th. The legislature will be in floor session starting on August 16 through the end on August 31st. Expect to see buill reports more frequently during these final two weeks of sessions as things will be happening quickly and there are large numbers of amendments happening.