Carpi & Clay – The Governor released his proposed FY2011/2012 budget in early January and immediately started the process to begin building a coalition around his proposals. Unlike the previous Governor, Governor Brown’s proposal does not include false assumptions such as federal bailouts or other revenues that will never materialize. That said, there are proposals being offered by the Governor that may end up being too difficult to accomplish, such as the significant cuts in the health and human services areas or the elimination of redevelopment agencies on a state-wide basis. Coupled witht he budget proposal, the Governor proposed to put a ballot measure on a special election in June to ask California voters to reaffirm the existing tax increases for another 5 years. The current tax rate is set to expire this June. If voters reject continuing the existing taxes, the Governor and the Legislature will need to address another $12.5 billion in cuts and other budget solutions. The official deadline for placing a measure on the June ballot is March 11 – hence the Governor’s call for a 60-day budget process. The Governor’s State of the STate address began his official sales pitch for his budget.

The Legislature reconvened on January 3rd for the start of the new two-year, 2011/2012, legislative session. Bill introduction have been happening slowly and we have been reviewing and referring legislation of interest. In terms of up coming deadlines, January 21st was the deadline for submitting bill language to the California Legislative Counsel and February 18th is the deadline for the introduction of all new legislation. We will provide a more detailed report in February outlining various introduced bills that may be of interest.