Carpi & Clay – Election Year – The 2012 legislative year should be an interesting one given the dynamics of this year’s elections and both the new legislative districts and top-two primary system. Couple the brave-new world for the legislators with the dynamics of a national election this fall and things become a bit more unpredictable in the legislative process this year. The largest issue looming is whether the Governor will be successful in persuading the sponsors of the other two tax proposals (Molly Munger and California Federation of Teachers) to drop their proposals and coalesce behind his tax/constitutional protection initiative for this November. The Governor has been busy trying to clear the Noember election of competing ballot measures and has had Legislative Leadership assisting in that process. An interesting side note – there were 102 initiatives filed with the Attorney General Offic ein 2011 – one of the largest batches ever according to the Oakland Tribune. Granted, not all of these initiative will collect enough signatures (800,000 plus signatures for an amendment to the constitution or 500,000 plus for a statutary change). Regardless, this November’s election will be crowded and its impacts on the legislative process probably mean that this will not be a productive legislative year.
2012 Legislative Session – The 2012 Legislative year has begun in earnest with the consideration of two-year bills by January 31st. Bill introduction deadline was last Friday, February 24th, with nearly 2000 bills introduced. We have referred the bills that we think may be of interest to you so please read the reports and let us know your thoughts on the bills. Policy hearing will start in late March/early April and the Budget Sub Committees will begin their hearing process starting in about two weeks.