ShareThisOther than passing two state budget revisions that failed to close a chronic deficit, the California Legislature has done almost nothing so far this year.
For that and other sins of omission and commission, the Legislature finds itself with a historically low approval rating of just 17 percent among California voters in a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.
However, lawmakers will redeem themselves with a burst of energy and creativity during the final four weeks of the 2009 session that begins this week, startling constituents and pundits alike.
And pigs will celebrate this political miracle by taking flight.
More machinations over the budget mess will dominate the month because Democrats claim that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent line-item budget vetoes are illegal and the federal courts are pressing the state to reduce prison inmates. Democratic leaders are also pledging to get really, really serious about water after decades of dithering.
Most of the remaining time, however, will be consumed by about 1,000 bills still awaiting disposition, which means lobbyists will pack the hallways by day and legislators will stage dozens of fundraising events by night.
Those fundraising events -- as many as 17 on just one day -- imply to lobbyists and their clients that if they want a receptive ear for their pleas, they'd best show up on the lists of ticket-buyers.
The session's overall tone will be dictated by the dominance of the Legislature by liberal Democrats, not a few of whom are trying to seek higher, or at least other, offices in 2010. That means they want to punch all the right buttons -- global warming, enhancing the interests of unions, expanding health care -- that will, they hope, endear them to the mostly liberal primary voters.
Ambitious Republicans will be doing the same thing, of course, but being in the minority, they have no hope of carrying significant legislation and will please their conservative voters by voting "no" on the Democrats' bills.
The overwhelmingly liberal tone to the hundreds of still- pending bills is the latest version of the Capitol's age-old game. Liberal lawmakers, on behalf of themselves and unions, personal injury attorneys, environmental groups and consumer advocates, press a wide variety of bills that business groups find noxious, some of which the latter label as "job killers."
Specifics include bills to increase the power of the Coastal Commission over development, impose new regulation on mortgage lenders in the wake of the housing meltdown, expand air emission regulation to fight global warming, speed up conversion to renewable energy sources, and mandate new coverage in health insurance.
It's all supposed to end with adjournment for the year on Sept. 11, but with the state's chronic budget woes and Schwarzenegger's expressed desire for a special session to deal with tax reform, no one expects the last month to be, in reality, the last month.
(E-mail Dan Walters at dwalters(at)sacbee.com. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Column. Must credit Sacramento Bee
