5.27.2009

Correction

(Editor’s Note: Once again, we are forced to place a reprimand in the personnel file of our chief correspondent who inaccurately stated in a May 26 post that the spending threshold to qualify a measure for the suspense file of the Assembly Appropriations Committee is $50,000. It is actually $150,000 and has been $150,000 since the distant time when John Vasconcellos chaired the committee. Therefore, the minimum cost if all 420 bills on suspense became law would be $62 million, not $21 million. However, sources tell California’s Capitol that the actual cost of allowing all those measures to become law – something that will not happen – is in the low billions. We regret the error.)

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5 Comments »

  1. Greg:

    The original text had me wondering if I had already forgotten some of the numbers associated with a normal Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File. Your correction has eased my fears, for the time being, of going down the road to complete memory loss.

    Steve Archibald
    (Retired)

    Comment by Steve Archibald — 5.27.2009 @ 12:23 pm

  2. Archibald retired? Why didn’t you wait for me?

    Comment by Pat Henning — 5.27.2009 @ 7:18 pm

  3. Well, it should be $50,000.

    Comment by T. McClintock — 5.28.2009 @ 10:18 am

  4. Greg…
    Since you started this, unintentionally, how about sorting our the meaning of the Senate’s Suspence File “rule”:
    9. SUSPENSE FILE
    The committee, by a majority of the members present and voting, shall refer to the Suspense File all bills that would have a fiscal impact in any single fiscal year from the General Fund or from private funds of $50,000 or more. Bills that establish a pilot project or program shall be referred to the Suspense File if the statewide implementation of the project or program would result in a fiscal impact of $50,000 or more in any single fiscal year from the General Fund or private funds.

    The committee, by a majority of the members present and voting, shall refer to the Suspense File all bills that would have a fiscal impact in any single fiscal year from any account(s) or fund(s) of $150,000 or more. Bills that establish a pilot project or program shall be referred to the Suspense File if the statewide implementation of the project or program would result in a fiscal impact of $150,000 or more in any single fiscal year from any account(s) or fund(s).

    For purposes of the above paragraphs, “fiscal impact” shall include cost increases, cost pressures, revenue decreases, increases in appropriations subject to limitation that are restricted in their use and result from increases in tax proceeds, and reductions in the State’s appropriations limit.
    This provision shall not apply to deficiency or supplemental appropriations bills authored by the chair of the Senate or the Assembly Budget Committee or claims or judgments and settlements bills authored by the chair of the Senate or the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

    Comment by J. Howard — 5.29.2009 @ 10:23 am

  5. As I read the Senate Suspense file rule if a bill costs the General Fund $50,000 or more it gets held up. If it has a cost of $150,000 — General Fund, special funds or otherwise — then it also gets held. That make sense?

    Comment by admin — 5.29.2009 @ 2:12 pm

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