from Kevin J Pedrotti, Legislative Advocate for the Golden State Builders Exchanges
July 17, 2009
State Budget
All of you read the paper, listen to the radio and watch television so it is no secret that an agreement has not been reached filling the $26 billion budget hole. Yesterday, there was an air of giddiness that an agreement was all but done and an announcement was pending. That came to an abrupt halt around 10 p.m. Wednesday night when negotiations ended over a disagreement over education funding and how Proposition 98 should be treated. I am far from an education funding expert, but it comes down to base year funding for education under the Proposition 98 formula and where the base is set for each following year. If you want to try to understand this better, see the SacBee story filed today. http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/023932.html#more
The Governor came out to the “bear” http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/021334.html around noon today and said negotiations were going well but no deal yet. So who knows. The legislative summer recess was to begin tomorrow, but both houses are on call over the weekend and have scheduled floor sessions on Monday. Maybe a vote late next week.
Road Commissioner
AB 1409 (Perez) was made a two-year bill today. The bill was heard earlier this week and prompted much opposition from local governments. The bill was put over until today to see if an agreement could be reached. By the time the hearing was held, a number of legislators on the committee had left the Capitol for home and there were not sufficient votes to move the bill. GSBE and a number of other construction groups support the bill; however, they are not listed on analysis posted below.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1401-1450/ab_1409_cfa_20090713_111148_sen_comm.html