The California Legislature operates in two distinct planes – public policy and private interest – and that syndrome emerges most strongly during the final, hectic weeks of any session.

The Capitol's politicians talk mostly about matters in the public policy arena, such as the state budget.

But they are preoccupied this month with the private realm because, as bank robber Willie Sutton was purported to say, that's where the money is.

Those measures almost always take money from someone and give it to someone else, directly or indirectly, and affected interests are expected to make campaign "contributions" to gain access to the process.

Not that there's not overlap between the public and the private. The Legislature's majority Democrats have displayed a willingness – or eagerness – to use their newly minted ability to pass secretly drafted budget trailer bills that have little or nothing to do with the budget but much to do with moneyed interests.

As the Legislature's 2012 session enters its final four weeks, hundreds of bills remain on its agenda of unfinished business, not counting an unknown number still to be written.

We're still waiting to see, for instance, how Democrats will respond to Gov. Jerry Brown's demand that public employee pensions be overhauled to reduce costs.

They also may be working – in secret – on an overhaul of the multibillion-dollar system that pays for job-related injuries and illnesses.

For years, workers' compensation attorneys, unions and medical care providers have sought to undo 2004 reforms that tightened benefits and reduced employers' costs. With Democrat Brown now in office, they're hoping for a friendly reception.

However, Brown is also cultivating business groups for funds to campaign for new taxes in the fall, so his attitude is uncertain.

Still another bill that's floating in the ether would overturn a 2011 state Supreme Court decision that limits recovery of medical care costs in personal injury lawsuits.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is carrying a shell measure, and a coalition of business and insurance groups is mounting opposition in anticipation of how he'll fill it.

That shell, Senate Bill 1528, is one of about a dozen bills that the state Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have labeled as "job killers" in the final month, and they are the focus of much of the pro and con lobbying.

Among them are three measures that would set the parameters of how billions of dollars in "cap and trade" fees being levied on business under the state's anti-global warming law could be spent. The chamber has labeled the fees an "illegal tax increase," indicating that their legality may be tested in court.

They typify the big money issues that always dominate a session's final days.

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