Carpi & Clay – The legislature returned from their summer recess in mid-August for the final month of session and already the games are being played. We have heard that the Senate is holding bills that the Assembly wants and vice-versa – everything seems to be fair game fairly early in the process, even by Sacramento standards. The suspense files in the Appropriations committees were heard on Thursday, August 25th and then there will be two weeks of floor session as everything needs to pass the respective floors and sent to the Governor by September 9th, the final day of session.

The Senate failed to pass the Speakers bill on eliminating the City of Vernon, so it remains to be seen how this may effect Senate bills in the Assembly and then vice-versa. Additionally, although we have a seasoned Governor in office it remains to be seen where he may end up on some of the policy issues that will be sent down to him in the final weeks of the legislative session.

The budget revenues have not materialized, as expected, and it appears as though the trigger cuts will need to take place. It isn’t clear if the legislature will return sometime during the fall break to deal with some budget issues or not, but like in previous years this budget has fallen apart just as quickly.