This Year's California State Budget: A Series of Essays by Sheila Kuehl

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By State Senator Sheila Kuehl

The Budget Process Through July 21st

This is my third essay for 2007 and the first one I have done on the 2007-2008 budget, which has now passed, after a series of cuts and more cuts. In this first of several essays on the budget, I will set out some of the provisions of the budget originally agreed to by the budget conference committee, the changes that were made to that budget in the Assembly in order to get 6 Republican votes and the reasons for the two-month stalemate in the Senate.

Budget Process, January to June

The Governor sends his proposed budget to the two houses of the Legislature in January, shortly after his “State of the State” speech. It is immediately divided into four or five sections and given to the budget sub-committees in each house to analyze, critique, change and adopt, piece by piece. Each administrative Agency and unit appears before a budget sub-committee to defend their budget. In May, the Governor submits a revised budget, called the “May Revise”, based on adjusted (tax) income and expense figures for the current year and expected savings or increases.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individual line items are adopted in exactly the same language by the budget sub-committees in both houses of the legislature. These provisions become a part of the budget without going to the budget Conference Committee for resolution, as none is needed. Those items that are different in the Senate and Assembly versions of their budget sections are sent to the budget Conference Committee where the differences are ironed out and one budget is presented for adoption by both houses.

The Big Four or The Big Five

At the close of the Conference Committee, the closed door dealing among the leaders of both houses and the Governor begins. This is often referred to as a meeting of the Big Five. Unlike previous governors, however, during the Schwarzenegger administration, the Governor is often absent from these deliberations and the four house leaders are left to try to iron out the differences and horse trade on their own. This was the case with discussions on the bond package from last year and the prison “reform” package this year. And it was the case with negotiations related to the Conference budget and cuts taken, as shown below, to get Republican votes on the budget in the Assembly on July 19th.