Friday, February 8, 2008

Election Wrap-up

With the defeat of Prop 93, the bi-annual election year “merry-go-round” will shift into high gear as candidates vie for ten State Senate and twenty-four Assembly seats that are now opened-up due to term limits. From an agricultural perspective, this year will be of particular interest in the Assembly where seven out of the twelve Central Valley “ag” seats are now open because the incumbents are termed-out. By contrast, only one of the six Central Valley “ag” seats in the Senate is open, Democrat Mike Machado from Linden. The Assembly members who must vacate their seats include:

Democrats:
          Nicole Parra – Hanford
          Lois Wolk – Davis

Republicans:
          Greg Aghazarian - Stockton
          Rick Keene – Chico
          Doug LaMalfa – Biggs
          Bill Maze – Visalia
          Alan Nakanishi – Lodi

One other Senate “ag” seat may also be in play this year. Although he doesn’t term-out until 2010, Republican Senator Jeff Denham (Merced) is faced with a possible recall election. Today the Democratic activists pushing the recall have submitted 50,000 signatures supporting the recall. If 31,000 of those signatures prove to be valid, the recall will move forward.

Budget Showdown

With all of the recent election related news, a very important, but little publicized twist to the State’s budget problems will start to receive more attention. Back in 2004 the electorate passed Proposition 58, a Constitutional amendment, which provides:

• The Governor has the authority to declare a fiscal emergency if he determines that the state faces substantial revenue shortfalls or expenditure increases. The Governor is then required to call a special session of the legislature and to propose legislation to address the fiscal emergency.
• If the legislature does not approve and send legislation to the Governor to address the fiscal emergency within 45 days, it is prohibited from acting on any other bills or adjourning in joint recess until such legislation is passed.

When the Governor announced his proposed 2008-09 Budget on January 10, he also declared (pursuant to Prop 58) a fiscal emergency and called for a special legislative session. This triggered the 45 day “clock.” Therefore, according to the new law, February 25 is the deadline for the legislature to do “something.”

What form this may take, what the resulting ramifications could be and how it may impact the legislative process, are all major “question marks” at this time. Given the fact that three of the four legislative leaders, who are veterans of previous budget negotiations (Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman), are termed-out, it’s unclear where the leadership is going to emerge to effectively deal with the very tight timetable.

We’re in uncharted waters, so it’s going to be a very interesting political process to follow.

State Boards & Commissions

AB 1869 (Anderson) has been introduced to eliminate or consolidate 88 state advisory boards and commissions, including the Agricultural Bargaining Advisory Committee. The primary purpose of this committee is to advise the Secretary on matters pertaining to dispute resolution procedures between bargaining associations and food processors when negotiating commodity prices and terms of delivery.

The 12 member committee is equally divided with six members representing grower bargaining associations and six representing food processors. A previous effort was made about three years ago when the Committee was eliminated through legislation associated with the 2005-06 Budget Act. However, its authorization was restored when AB 1061 (supported by Ag Council and others) was passed and signed into law.

Given the State’s budget challenges, bills of this nature are given “new life” and we’ll have to see how it plays out.