Welcome to Sacramento, and good luck

Brimming with fresh energy and new ideas, 11 new senators and 28 new Assembly members will take their oaths of office only to face the grim task of having to plug a hole in the state budget that is predicted to reach $28 billion within about 18 months.

"It's going to be a very frustrating session for the new members," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. "They will be coming to Sacramento with grand ideas about what to change in government, but there is no money."

Lawmakers' failure to solve the state's fiscal problems during a November special session means that it will be job No. 1 next year, said incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who will assume the leadership post today.

New lawmakers are disappointed that they are going to have to spend much of their time, at least in the early months, trying to find a permanent fix for the problems that have put the state budget in jeopardy year after year.

"It's going to be dominated by the budget downturn," conceded newly elected Assemblyman John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) of the session. "My hope is that we are able to lay the foundation for structural reforms."

Perez said his priorities include an end to the two-thirds vote requirement for passing budgets and raising taxes, and changing the way that taxes are divided between the state and local governments to provide more stability to municipalities.

Incoming Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) is worried that her ideas may become the victims of a depleted state treasury. The first bill she plans to introduce, to reduce pollution from chemicals sprayed to decontaminate port cargo containers, will depend on whether there is money to implement new regulations.

"The budget will color everything I plan to address as a new legislator," Lowenthal said.

Republican lawmakers, who have blocked tax and fee increases proposed by Democrats and the governor to pump up state coffers, will seek to counteract the downturn in the economy by emphasizing the creation of jobs.