California Insider

A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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August 12, 2003

Last chance session

When lawmakers return to the Capitol for the end of the 2003 session Aug. 18, they will engage in four of the oddest weeks in the history of the Legislature. With Gov. Gray Davis campaigning to save his job in the recall election, the Democrats who control the Legislature will have to decide whether to cast their lot with him, try to help Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, or go their own way. Some, I'm told, will be rushing bills to the governor's desk by Aug. 29, even though the session won't end until Sept. 12. If a measure makes it to Davis by the earlier date, the governor must sign or veto it within 12 days, forcing him to act before the election. Bills passed later will be set aside, and Davis will not be required to sign or veto them until Oct. 12, five days after voters pass judgment on his future.

Meanwhile, pressure is building in the Legislature for the enactment of major changes to tax laws and other statutes. Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento is pushing an idea that would involve repealing the controversial car tax increase Davis enacted by administrative order, and replacing it with the same amount of revenue from new taxes on upper income Californians and cigarettes. Democrats would do this by a majority vote, rather than the two-thirds margin typically required of tax increases, because while they would be increasing some taxes, lawmakers would be lowering others, leaving the overall level of taxes the same. Politically, it's clear most Californians would prefer taxing the wealthy to taxing their cars, and that dynamic would put Republicans in a quandary. They would hate the idea of raising taxes by majority vote, and since they believe the car tax was increased illegally, they would argue that the taint of that move was attached to any change to which it was linked. But if they opposed Steinberg's idea, they would be in the position of blocking a middle class tax cut while protecting the wealthy. Bustamante has taken up this cause and will be pushing it aggressively. This might force other candidates, including the Republicans, to take a stand.

Look for other lawmakers to push a bill that would change the way business property is re-assessed in California, removing some of the protections that were part of the Legislature's implementation of Proposition 13. This could also be done by a simple majority, Democrats believe, and would raise more than $1 billion a year for the treasury.

Workers compensation reform will also be on the table, and the Legislature will be looking to make business-friendly improvements there to go along with any corporate hits they enact with changes in the tax laws.