BILL NUMBER: SCA 20 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 18, 2000
INTRODUCED BY Senators Perata, Costa, Escutia, Johannessen, Kelley,
Monteith, Murray, Peace, and Polanco
MAY 8, 2000
Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 20--A resolution to propose to
the people of the State of California an amendment to the
Constitution of the State, by amending Sections 2 and 12
Section 2 of Article IV thereof, and by amending
Section 7 of Article XX thereof, relating to the Legislature.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCA 20, as amended, Perata. Legislature: term limits: budget
bill.
The California Constitution establishes the California
Legislature, consisting of the Senate and the Assembly. Under the
California Constitution, no Senator may serve more than 2 terms of 4
years each, and no Member of the Assembly may serve more than 3 terms
of 2 years each, as specified.
This measure would provide instead that a Senator may not serve
more than 3 consecutive terms in that office and
that a Member of the Assembly may not serve more than 6
consecutive terms in that office, commencing in 2000, as
specified.
The California Constitution requires the annual Budget Bill to be
introduced in each house by the chairs of the committees in each
house that consider appropriations.
This measure would instead require the annual Budget Bill to be
introduced in each house by the chairs of committees in each house
that consider the budget.
The California Constitution requires the Legislature to pass the
Budget Bill by midnight on June 15 of each year.
This measure would require, commencing with the Budget Bill for
the 2003-04 fiscal year, forfeiture of the salaries of all Members of
the Legislature if the Budget Bill, as defined, is not passed by the
Legislature by midnight on June 30. The forfeiture would continue
from midnight on June 30 until the Budget Bill is passed by the
Legislature. The measure would preclude paying those salaries
retroactively. The measure would also include the amount of that
forfeiture in the maximum amount permitted under the California
Constitution for that fiscal year for the total aggregate
expenditures of the Legislature, as specified.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
Resolved by the Senate, the Assembly concurring, That the
Legislature of the State of California at its 1999-2000 Regular
Session commencing on the seventh day of December 1998, two-thirds of
the membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the
people of the State of California that the Constitution of the State
be amended as follows:
First--That Section 2 of Article IV is amended to read:
SEC. 2. (a) The Senate has a membership of 40 Senators elected
for four-year terms, 20 to begin every two years. No Senator may
serve more than three consecutive terms.
The Assembly has a membership of 80 members elected for two-year
terms. No Member of the Assembly may serve more than six
consecutive terms.
Their terms shall commence on the first Monday in December next
following their election.
(b) Election of Members of the Assembly shall be on the first
Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years
unless otherwise prescribed by the Legislature. Senators shall be
elected at the same time and places as Members of the Assembly.
(c) A person is ineligible to be a member of the Legislature
unless the person is an elector and has been a resident of the
legislative district for one year, and a citizen of the United States
and a resident of California for three years, immediately preceding
the election.
(d) When a vacancy occurs in the Legislature the Governor
immediately shall call an election to fill the vacancy.
(e) A Senator who has served three consecutive terms, or a Member
of the Assembly who has served six consecutive terms, may next be
reelected to that office to a term that commences upon the expiration
of one intervening complete term of office.
Second--That Section 12 of Article IV is amended to read:
SEC. 12. (a) Within the first 10 days of each calendar year,
the Governor shall submit to the Legislature, with an explanatory
message, a budget for the ensuing fiscal year containing itemized
statements for recommended state expenditures and estimated state
revenues. If recommended expenditures exceed estimated revenues, the
Governor shall recommend the sources from which the additional
revenues should be provided.
(b) The Governor and the Governor-elect may require a state
agency, officer or employee to furnish whatever information is deemed
necessary to prepare the budget.
(c) The budget shall be accompanied by a budget bill itemizing
recommended expenditures. The bill shall be introduced immediately
in each house by the persons chairing the committees that consider
the budget. The Legislature shall pass the budget bill by midnight
on June 15 of each year. Until the budget bill has been enacted, the
Legislature may not send to the Governor for consideration any bill
appropriating funds for expenditure during the fiscal year for which
the budget bill is to be enacted, except emergency bills recommended
by the Governor or appropriations for the salaries and expenses of
the Legislature not including the salaries of Members of the
Legislature.
(d) No bill except the budget bill may contain more than one item
of appropriation, and that for one certain, expressed purpose.
Appropriations from the General Fund of the State, except
appropriations for the public schools, are void unless passed in each
house by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two-thirds of the
membership concurring.
(e) The Legislature may control the submission, approval, and
enforcement of budgets and the filing of claims for all state
agencies.
(f) Notwithstanding Sections 4 and 8 of Article III, in any year
in which the budget bill is not passed by the Legislature by midnight
on June 30, each Member of the Legislature shall forfeit any salary
for the period from midnight on June 30 until the date that the
budget bill is passed. Forfeited salary may not be paid
retroactively. The total amount of salary forfeited by Members of
the Legislature under this subdivision during any fiscal year shall
be counted as part of the total aggregate expenditures of the
Legislature for that fiscal year for purposes of Section 7.5. For
purposes of this subdivision, the passage of a budget bill is deemed
to occur when a bill is passed that would make appropriations for the
support of the government of the State for the entire fiscal year.
Third--That
Second--That Section 7 of Article XX is amended to read:
SEC. 7. (a) The limitations on the number of terms prescribed
by Section 2 of Article IV, as amended November 6, 1990, Sections 2
and 11 of Article V, Section 2 of Article IX, and Section 17 of
Article XIII apply only to terms to which persons are elected or
appointed on or after November 6, 1990, except that an incumbent
Senator whose office is not on the ballot for the general election on
that date may serve only one additional term.
(b) Section 2 of Article IV, as amended by the measure that added
this subdivision, applies, for purposes including term
limitations and the computation of consecutive terms, to any term
of computing term limitations, only to terms of
office as a Senator or Member of the Assembly that commences
commence on or after December 2, 2000,
and December 4, 2000, but also includes the
term of an incumbent Senator whose office is not on the ballot for
the November 7, 2000, general election.
(c) The term limitations identified in this section do not apply
to any unexpired term to which a person is elected or appointed if
the remainder of the term is less than half of the full term.
And be it further resolved, That the amendments to Section 12 of
Article IV of the California Constitution made by this measure shall
apply to the budget bill for the 2003-04 fiscal year and each
subsequent fiscal year, and shall apply for all purposes commencing
July 1, 2003.