Former Ceres Mayor Anthony Cannella, 41, is now state Sen.
Cannella. Former Watsonville Mayor Luis Alejo is now Assemblyman
Alejo. And both now actively represent San Benito County.
Former Ceres Mayor Anthony Cannella, 41, has been sworn in as a state senator. Former Watsonville Mayor Luis Alejo is now an assemblyman. And both now actively represent San Benito County.
The two lawmakers will need all the good wishes from family and supporters – who came out in celebration of new legislators in Sacramento Monday – and then some. They are part of a Legislature that is facing a $6 billion deficit in the current state budget and a $19 billion deficit for the state budget that starts July 1.
Gov. Schwarzenegger called lawmakers into an emergency session Monday afternoon to close the current deficit. But it’s not clear how much progress the lame duck GOP governor will make.
Democrats – who control the Senate and Assembly – may wait for Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown to take office next month before tackling the deficit.
“Today is the celebration,” Cannella said, “and tomorrow the hard work starts.”
Schwarzenegger this week released a proposal to trim $2 billion from the current year’s budget and another $8 billion from anticipated spending in the 2011-12 budget.
Legislators were then dismissed and told by their leaders to come back in January – when they will still face severe fiscal problems but will have a new governor.
Schwarzenegger acknowledged that critics in the media and even some members of his own staff had advised him that “maybe it’s a waste of time” for him to submit a list of budget-cutting proposals with less than a month remaining in his term.
“I always said I will charge through the finish line,” he said. “I want to do everything I can to make the budget a little bit easier for the next governor.”
Even before Schwarzenegger publicly unveiled his proposal, however, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, had recessed the Assembly and told members they would next meet on Jan. 3 – the day Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown takes office.
Perez later called Schwarzenegger’s list “a rehash of proposals we have already considered and rejected.”
Among the items on the governor’s hit list is the elimination of the state’s welfare-to-work program, a proposal the Democrat-controlled Legislature flatly rejected during this year’s record-long budget stalemate.
With the declaration of a fiscal emergency, the Legislature had 45 days to take some action to reduce current-year spending. In this case, that time period will end in mid-January, about two weeks after Brown takes office.
Brown, who had scheduled a meeting for Wednesday with legislators and other government officials to discuss the severity of the state’s projected $25 billion shortfall over the next 18 months, must release his own budget-cutting ideas by Jan. 10.
The fiscal challenges overshadowed the traditional pomp and circumstance of the swearing-in of new legislators.
By acclamation, the Assembly re-elected Perez as speaker, a position strengthened by last month’s election in which Democrats picked up an additional seat in the Assembly and now hold a 52-28 majority.
Perez told Assembly members their principal challenge is to deal with the state’s budget problems in a manner that will be least disruptive to the California economy.
“We all know precisely what our goal must be: putting Californians back to work and getting California’s fiscal house in order,” he said. “The challenge facing our state will require a united and focused effort from all of us.”
Perez said Assemblyman Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita, one of two Republicans to chair a committee, will continue to be chairman of the Local Government Committee. He announced that he and Smyth, whose district includes much of Simi Valley, will co-sponsor a bill to disband the city of Vernon, a city in Los Angeles County with a population of fewer than 100 people that Perez said “operates something close to a racket” with city tax dollars.
In his capacity as chairman of the Local Government Committee, Smyth has also taken a lead role in overseeing legislation to deal with the pay scandals in the city of Bell. Smyth introduced legislation Monday that would prohibit the practice of former Bell city officials of holding multiple meetings of different government entities on the same day to collect separate stipends for attending each meeting.
