The new California Legislature convened on December 1, 2014 and was sworn in for the 2015-2016 regular session. This is certainly going be an interesting session with an unprecedented number of new legislators taking the oath, a flurry of special elections, and complex policy issues on the horizon.

As a result of term limits, there is a huge class of freshman and one-term legislators.  In fact, 72 out of the 120 legislators that were sworn in have at most two years of state experience.  However, this incoming class of lawmakers could remain intact for a decade. Under the provisions of term limits, each legislator elected on or after the passage of Proposition 28, in 2012, may serve a lifetime maximum of 12 years in the State Legislature.  

Despite concerns about a knowledge gap or power migrating to those who were not elected (i.e lobbyists in the "third house"), there is an upside to the new term limits.  Under California’s initial term limit scheme, lawmakers could serve a maximum of three 2-year terms in the Assembly and two 4-year terms in the Senate. Now they can serve 12 years regardless of the house.  This could mean significantly less jostling for the next office and more focus on the issues. 

The game of post-election legislative seat hopping has already begun with newly elected Assembly members now declaring their candidacy for these vacant Senate seats. This will cause a domino effect with vacancies opening up in the Assembly as members move on to the Senate.

Such uncertainties will make it difficult for the Legislative leadership to get the 2015-2016 session started with party caucuses and committee memberships constantly changing.

A new class of relatively inexperienced legislators coupled with the distractions caused by special elections, will certainly make tackling the complex policy issues in 2015 even more challenging.  

The key issues of concern to CLFP in 2015 include clean-up to the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, recycling of food packaging materials, energy, food labeling, and employer mandates.    

 

CLFP will be hosting its seventh annual Capitol Day February 17, 2015 in an effort to meet with the new legislators early in the legislative session and to educate them about the food processing industry in California and the issues impacting the industry.