California Legislative News--January 2005
By Kathryn Lynch, Lynch & Associates / CAM Legislative Advocate

The 2005-06 legislative session got underway on December 6, 2004. The elections produced a status quo outcome for the balance of power in the Legislature. The democrats remain in solid control of both houses and maintain the same balance of seats with the Senate being comprised of 25 democrats and 15 republicans. The Assembly has 48 democrats and 32 republicans.

What is a significant development as a result of term limits is the volume of new legislators in each house. There are 24 new assembly members and 10 new senators which represents about one fourth turnover in each house. This is the first time since term limits was approved by the voters that the state has seen this volume of new members. This will have a major impact on the budget negotiations and public policy. It will require more active involvement of CAM and its membership to outreach to legislators to help them understand our issues and the demographics of museums in there legislative districts.

It will certainly be a spirited session as the governor unveils his budget on January 10, 2005. The governor last summer announced his plans to restructure government to make it more efficient and effective. Those recommendations included 1,200 recommendations. As has been the style of this governor he went straight to the public with these plans and announced a high powered commission (The California Performance Review Commission) to hold a series of eight public hearings around the state and issue a report with specific recommendations. These recommendations have been issued in a report in November, 2004 to the governor for consideration.

Some of these recommendations are able to be implemented by the governor via executive order and many require legislation. For some of the major government restructuring the administration has partnered with the Little Hoover Commission to assist with these proposals.

No doubt the governor will address some of these recommendations in his State of State on the budget in January as he continues to indicate he will not support increasing taxes but wants to balance the budget with more efficiency in government. There is likely to be policy clashes on this with the Legislature that will shape much of the budget debate this session.

Both the governor and the Legislature will need to work together to address our troublesome budget foes. The Legislative Analyst's Office, the nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor for California continue to sound the alarms that in spite of a recovery in the economy that we face a huge structural deficits. While the 2005-06 budgets is assisted by last years budget and 3.5 billion in deficit bonds that have not been used we would have tougher choices the following year in the 2006-07 budget when we revert to a structural deficit of 10 billion dollars. The Legislative Analyst is persistently challenging the governor and the Legislature to get the structural deficit under control now before the problem worsens.

Coupled with the dynamic of the budget is the gubernatorial election cycle beginning anew. Yes, we just had an election but the gubernatorial election is slated for 2006 and campaigning and public policy posturing will be in full motion this session. The governor campaigned during the recall on fiscal accountability and redefining the role of government in Californians lives and this will be a major factor in his budget negotiations.

The Legislature will begin introducing bills when they return on December 6th and have until February 18, 2005 to introduce all the bills. CAM will be reviewing and working with legislators on numerous bills this next session. Some legislative proposals that have surfaced thus far include policy issues on a state museum for women as well as a broader cultural museum concept , nonprofit special licensee plate legislation and numerous budget items as a few of the bills CAM will be addressing this session. I look forward to reporting on these activities in future updates.