After release of the Governor’s budget revisions, the budget proposal goes back to the Legislature to consider and act on – either to approve his proposals (including changing them) or to reject them.

Budget Subcommittee Hearings

• Both the Assembly and Senate will hold – though on a fast track – another round of budget subcommittee hearings, hearing and taking public testimony usually on new proposals contained in the Governor’s budget revisions issued in May.
• These hearings  are usually held in the final two weeks of May.
• The budget subcommittees will then take their final actions on the various proposals by the Governor that he proposed in May – and any proposal by the Governor he made in January that they did not yet take action on.
• The Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees will frequently take different actions on several of the Governor’s proposals. When that happens, those different actions are sent to a special joint committee – called a budget conference committee.

Budget Conference Committee

• Budget conference committee is composed of 3 Assemblymembers – 2 Democrats and 1 Republican and 3 State Senators – 2 Democrats and 1 Republican.
• During early to mid June the Budget Conference Committee will hold public hearings at the State Capitol in Room 4203 (televised) to resolve any different actions taken on various budget issues by the two houses. While these hearings are public, no public testimony is taken.  H owever, UDW members are encouraged to write letters and make phone calls to conference committee members and other legislators.
• By mid to late June the Budget Conference Committee usually completes its work and sends the Governor’s proposed budget – as revised by the subcommittees and budget conference committee – to the full Assembly and State Senate for a vote.
• However, because the State Constitution requires 2/3rds vote to approve a State Budget in both houses (54 votes in the Assembly and 27 votes in the State Senate) and with Democrats needing at least some Republican votes in both houses to pass a budget – a stand-off nearly always occurs at this stage in the process.

Big Five Meetings

• It is at that point in late June or July that usually the four legislative leaders (Senate President Pro Tem, Senate Republican Leader, the Assembly Speaker and the Assembly Republican Leader) and the Governor begin to hold meetings to try to come up with agreement that will result in getting the necessary Democratic and Republican votes needed to pass a state budget in both the Assembly and State Senate.
• Assembly Speaker John Perez (Democrat – Los Angeles) has said, however, that those “Big Five” (the four legislative leaders and the Governor) meetings will be much different than in previous years. He promised there would be no closed door deals and that the membership of both the Assembly and Senate would have the opportunity to fully review and consider any new proposal that comes up.

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