Walters: Newsom's final budget faces a litany of political and financial challenges

"It starts, as state law requires, with the governor's introduction of a preliminary version in January, as Gavin Newsom did last week, unveiling a $349 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Theoretically, the Legislature will spend the next four months going through its details, Newsom will make some revisions in May, and he and legislators will finalize a version for adoption by the June 15 constitutional deadline."

"It allowed so-called trailer bills to be enacted with the same simple majority votes and take effect immediately upon signing. Originally, trailer bills were to make legal changes needed to implement budget allocations. But one year at a time it morphed into vehicles for major changes in state law that had little or nothing to do with the budget, often drafted in secrecy and passed in batches with little scrutiny."

"Years ago, a reporter who covered the Legislature coined an apt name for such measures, calling them mushroom bills because they grew in the dark, nurtured by manure. Newsom has been especially eager to exploit the trailer bill loophole, often packaging much of his agenda in such measures, making them subject to closed-door negotiations with legislative leaders and using the budget's appropriations for leverage."

The governor introduces a preliminary budget in January, exemplified by Gavin Newsom's $349 billion proposal for the fiscal year starting July 1. The expected legislative review, May revisions, and finalization by the June 15 deadline once occurred regularly. Over recent decades the process has changed as Democrats gained legislative dominance and removed the need for Republican votes through Proposition 25. That change allowed trailer bills to take effect with a simple majority and be used for major legal changes unrelated to budget implementation. Those so-called mushroom bills are often drafted in secrecy, used as leverage in closed negotiations, and sometimes backfire when impacts become known.

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