Carpi & Clay – 2011 Legislative Session – Governor Brown finished his review of legislation (signing, veto, or simply no action which means the bill becomes law automatically) on October 9th. Here are some interesting statistics courtesy of Senate Committee on Governance & Finance;
- Brown considered the lowest number of bills (870) of any Governor since the California Constitution was changed to disallow the pocket veto in 1966 (Proposition 1A).
- Brown vetoed a higher percentage in 2011 (14.36%) than any of his prior years as Governor
- Brown’s veto percentage (14.36%), is only slightly above the average since 1967 (13.82%).
- Deukmejian and Schwarzenegger still hold the record for the most bills vetoed in a year, 436 (1990) and 414 (2008) respectively.
- 2011 holds the fewest vetoed bills (125) since the recall year in 2003 (58).
- The five years with the lowest number of chaptered bills have all been since 2007.
- Between 1967 and 2002, the average number of bills considered by the Governor per year was 1,558. Since 2003, the average number of bills considered per year dropped to 1,033, a 33% decrease.
- In 1982, Brown vetoed just 30 bills, setting the record for the lowest number of vetoes.
- The five years with the highest number of chaptered bills (bills that became law) were all with Republican governors (1971, 1984, 1967, 1990, 1988).

Budget – Unfortunately revenues continue to fall behind budget projections – roughly $750 million short for FY 2011/12. If these revenue shortfalls continue till the end of the calendar year, the Governor will be faced with the decision to implement the first round of trigger cuts, $100 million from higher education. The trigger cuts were a component of the final budget deal – if actual revenues did not match budget projections, then a series of automatic cuts would begin starting in January. Those trigger cuts are not popular with the Legislature. Legislative Leadership had tried to modify the trigger cuts at the end of the legislative session, but the bill sent to the Governor was almost immediately vetoed (and was strongly opposed by the State Treasurer since it would require changes to disclosure statements for the upcoming State bond sale). Currently the Legislature isn’t scheduled to return to Sacramento until after the New Year holiday, January 4th. If the threat of implementing the trigger cuts is real, we believe that it is highly likely that the Legislature will return in December to look at alternatives to the trigger cuts.