The New Year came early to Sacramento as the newly elected legislators were sworn in and began preparing for the 2011 legislative session.

Following the swearing-in of 38 new legislators elected last month, including a WesternCenter and Legal Aid Alumna Assemblymember Holly Mitchell, Gov. Schwarzenegger held a press conference, declaring a fiscal emergency and proposing a $9.9 billion package of budget-gap solutions comprised of $7.4 billion in cuts and $1.6 billion of funding shifts and miscellaneous revenue. As he explained that most of the cuts came from health and human services, Governor Schwarzenegger added, "I always said that I would go and charge through the finish line."

Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D- Sacramento) and Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D- Los Angeles) have indicated that they are not likely to work with Schwarzenegger on his final budget proposal.   As per the California Constitution[1], the legislature has 45 days to act following the declaration of fiscal emergency without impacting the legislative calendar, which means that the legislature could wait until the January swearing in of Governor-Elect Jerry Brown before sending their budget solutions to the Governor’s office.

Today was also the first day that legislators could introduce legislation for the regular session. Speaker Peréz introduced AB1 would restore funding to CalWORKs Stage Three Child Care. As WesternCenter has previously reported, this funding was eliminated by Governor Schwarzenegger in a line-item veto in October. 

Also noteworthy was a bill introduced by Speaker Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-North Hollywood), Assembly Bill 6, that calls for the elimination of finger imaging, the implementation of simplified reporting for CalFresh and CalWORKs and streamlines reporting for the CalFresh utility deduction.

For a copy of this year’s tentative legislative calendar, click here. For a complete list of this year’s legislative rosters with contact information:

• California State Assembly
• California State Senate

To stay informed about public benefit legislation in 2011, be sure and sign-up to receive updates from Western Center’s Legislative Blog and stay abreast of health and human services budget news by signing up for e-mail updates from the Health and Human Services Network. 

[1] Article 4, Section 10 (f)(2) “If the Legislature fails to pass and send to the Governor a bill or bills to address the fiscal emergency by the 45th day following the issuance of the proclamation, the Legislature may not act on any other bill, nor may the Legislature adjourn for a joint recess, until that bill or those bills have been passed and sent to the Governor.”