Lawmakers face crowded agendas in final week of session

AP ^ | 9/6/5 | STEVE LAWRENCE

[SmithL]

SACRAMENTO - After more than seven months of wrangling, negotiating and pleading for votes, California legislators will try to put the finishing touches on about 400 bills as their 2005 session ends this week.

Measures that would recognize gay marriages, raise the minimum wage, allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses and promote a massive expansion of solar power need to clear final hurdles in the next few days to reach the governor's desk.

Also on lawmakers' agendas are bills that would boost nutrition requirements for school food, require identifying marks on handgun bullets to help solve crimes, allow alternatives to passing the high school graduation exam and authorize Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cancel the Nov. 8 special election.

The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year on Friday, but an earlier - or even slightly later departure - is possible.

Here are some of the key bills that face votes this week:

GAY MARRIAGE: Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, will try again to persuade the Assembly to approve a bill that would recognize gay marriages performed in California. His first attempt, in June, fell four votes short.

But the Senate gave him another chance last week by approving another of his bills that was turned into a gay marriage measure after it passed the Assembly. That amended bill is back for another Assembly vote that will determine if it makes it to Schwarzenegger, who has indicated he'd rather have the issue decided by the courts or voters, not by his signature on the bill.

DRIVER'S LICENSES: Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, is making another attempt - his fifth in seven years - to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, a step he says will improve highway safety.

But his latest bill, which is awaiting a vote in the Assembly, seems to be headed for a veto by Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor, who vetoed Cedillo's bill last year, has raised a series of objections to the legislation. His latest: It shouldn't be enacted until the federal government issues regulations covering the licenses.

The Assembly amended the bill last week to allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to wait eight months after the federal regulations come out to issue the licenses, which would have to have a different look than standard driver's licenses and wouldn't be widely accepted as valid identification documents.

Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said the amendments won't satisfy the administration.

"We still need to see what the parameters are in terms of the regulations that are disseminated ... before we can make a decision in California," she said. "Any state action remains premature."

Cedillo said Monday that he and other supporters have given Schwarzenegger what he needs to support the bill.

"If he doesn't do this, it will jeopardize the lives of 22 million motorists in California," Cedillo said. "He needs to be responsible and he needs to honor his words."

SOLAR POWER: Schwarzenegger has backed off his support for a bill that would offer subsidies to home and business owners who install solar energy systems. He said he wouldn't accept amendments that set wage standards for workers who install the systems on businesses.

Now the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers are trying to negotiate a compromise that would result in the bill being signed into law.

MINIMUM WAGE: This is another bill that seems certain to draw a veto from Schwarzenegger. It would raise California's minimum wage by $1 an hour, to $7.75, in two steps and then tie future increases to inflation.

It's strongly opposed by Schwarzenegger's allies among employers, particularly restaurant owners. The governor vetoed a less ambitious minimum wage increase last year.

Bill supporters say the state's minimum wage has lagged behind inflation and minimum wages in other West Coast states, forcing many low-wage workers into public assistance programs. Business groups contend an increase in the wage would cost jobs.

SPECIAL ELECTION: A bill by Assemblyman Johan Klehs, D-San Leandro, would specify that Schwarzenegger has the power to cancel the special election he called for Nov. 8.

But the bill, awaiting a vote in the Senate, probably won't reach him. It needs support from at least a few Republican lawmakers and isn't likely to get it.

In any event, Schwarzenegger has said he has no plans to cancel the election, despite polls showing little support for it.

[SmithL]

Heaven help us until this week of mischief is over.

[highlymotivated]

Thank GOD I do not live in The People's Republik of Kalifornia.

Good luck.