Chris Micheli

CA Legislative Explainer: Gut-and-Amend Bills  By Chris Micheli One of the controversial occurrences during the annual California Legislative Session is so-called “gut-and-amend bills.” According to the Office of Legislative Counsel (i.e., the Legislature’s lawyers), these measures are defined as “when amendments to a bill remove the current contents in their entirety and replace them with different provisions.” The controversy is the second part of the process – replacing the bill’s contents with a subject which is unrelated to the original contents of the bill. Such amendments raise the legislative issue of “germaneness,” which refers to whether a proposed amendment is relevant to the subject matter currently contained in the measure. While Legislative Counsel may opine on the issue of germaneness, the determination of germaneness is decided by the Presiding Officer and, ultimately, subject to an appeal by the membership of the respective house.   As a result, a majority of the

CA Legislative Explainer: Effective and Operative Dates  By Chris Micheli There is often confusion regarding effective versus operative dates in California statutes. Specifically, individuals may inquire when a statute actually “takes effect.” When it takes effect can be different than when the statute is operative. January 1 following the year a bill is enacted is the most common effective date and is basically the “default” effective date. A common definition of “effective date” is when the new law is “on the books.” There are certain types of bills that are deemed to be in effect upon enactment (i.e., when the governor signed them and the secretary of state assigned a chapter number). However, unless the bill calls an election, contains an urgency clause, or is a budget-related bill or tax levy measure, one can presume the effective date of a new law is January 1 of the following year. On the other hand, a common definition of “operative date” is when the new law becomes ope

CA Legislative Explainer: General and Special Statutes  By Chris Micheli A general statute is essentially a law that pertains uniformly to an entire community or all persons generally. On the other hand, a special statute is essentially a law that applies to a particular person, place, or interest. California law provides for both types of statutes. California’s Constitution in Article IV, Section 16, provides “ (a) All laws of a general nature have uniform operation. (b) A local or special statute is invalid in any case if a general statute can be made applicable.” As a result, general statutes are the main type of statutes enacted and they apply uniformly by their language; however, special statutes can be pursued so long as a general statute would not apply in the particular circumstance. Working with the bill author, the Office of Legislative Counsel will make a determination whether a special statute will pass constitutional muster and, if so, how the bill must be drafted.

CA Legislative Explainer: Convening a New Legislative Session  By Chris Micheli   The  California Legislature  convenes a new two-year session every other December. California’s Constitution, in Article IV, Section 3(a), requires that “The Legislature shall convene in regular session at noon on the first Monday in December of each even-numbered year and each house shall immediately organize. Each session of the Legislature shall adjourn sine die by operation of the Constitution at midnight on November 30 of the following even-numbered year.”   There are additional provisions found in the California Government Code. Section 9020 provides that “The Legislature shall convene in regular session at the City of Sacramento at noon on the first Monday in December of each even-numbered year, and each house shall immediately organize.”   Section 9022 provides the following for the State Senate: “At the day and hour appointed for the assembling of any regular session of the Legislature

Data on California Veto Overrides With help from my friends, Alex Vassar and Brian Ebbert, in terms of the last successful bill veto overrides, those occurred in 1979. The last successful veto override was in February 1980, which was a line-item (appropriation) veto override. The appropriation was contained in SB 190. AB 580 (Lou Papan), which restricted the sale of insurance by bank holding companies, was the second bill veto override in 11 days in July 1979. And that bill was the third time Gov. Brown had a veto overridden. Gov Brown’s prior veto override was in 1977 on a bill dealing with the death penalty. The veto override earlier in July 1979 was on a bill granting state employees a retroactive pay increase. The Legislature overrode 5 bill vetoes during the period from 1979 to 1957. There have been no successful bill veto overrides since 1979, or in the past 45 years. There were also a number of bill veto override attempts during Gov Reagan’s final term in office, w

Categorizing Gubernatorial Vetoes -- 2024 I reviewed all 189 veto messages by GGN and put them into the following 7 categories. (Note that about a dozen of them had more than 1 reason attached) The percentage is the amount of the total veto messages in that category. (Again, these are my categories based upon my reading of the messages.) Budget Impact – 30% Unwarranted Policy Change – 27% Unnecessary (or being done by a state or local entity) – 22% Duplicative or Redundant – 8% Premature – 8% New Burden on a State Agency – 3% Vetoed a Similar Bill Previously – 2%

  In addition to the party breakdown I annually do on gubernatorial bill actions, this year I was asked about a gender breakdown. So, here it is: SIGNATURES (1) There are 22 men (55%) and 18 women (45%) comprising the 40-member State Senate. In 2024, of the bills signed by GGN, 54.5% were authored by male Senators and 45.5% were authored by female Senators. (2) There are 48 men (60%) and 32 women (40%) comprising the 80-member State Assembly. (One vacancy in the male rank currently.) In 2024, of the bills signed by GGN, 60% were authored by male Assembly Members and 40% were authored by female Assembly Members. VETOES In 2024, of the SBs vetoed by GGN, 50% were authored by male Senators and 50% were authored by female Senators. In 2024, of the ABs vetoed by GGN, 57% authored by male Assembly Members and 43% for female Assembly Members.