In abstract
State businesses and commissions assigned to organize experiences to the Legislature on how nicely new legal guidelines are working typically fail to submit them on time, or in any respect.
California lawmakers go practically 1,000 new legal guidelines annually. How do they know whether or not they’re working?
Many new legal guidelines embrace a requirement for progress experiences to the Legislature, however state businesses and commissions assigned to organize these experiences typically fail to submit them on time, or in any respect, in keeping with the Legislature’s web site.
Of the 867 experiences due between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9 of this 12 months, 84% haven’t been filed to the Workplace of Legislative Counsel, in keeping with a CalMatters evaluation. Of the 16% that had been submitted — 138 experiences — 68 had been filed late. One other 344 experiences are due by Dec. 31.
Some businesses advised CalMatters the experiences had been accomplished, however they weren’t correctly filed with the Workplace of Legislative Counsel, as state regulation requires. It’s not clear how most of the lacking experiences had been improperly filed.
The info is in keeping with earlier CalMatters reporting that discovered 70% of about 1,100 experiences due between February 2023 and February 2024 had not been filed to the Workplace of Legislative Counsel. About half of those who had been filed had been late.
Legislators say the dearth of information could make it difficult to resolve, for instance, whether or not to grant a program extra money.
Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norristhe Irvine Democrat who beforehand chaired an Meeting administrative oversight committee, says delayed or lacking info is a “huge issue, and a huge challenge.”
“We’ve got to ensure that we are making data-driven decisions and evaluating programs using real information,” she mentioned. “I don’t think there’s enough attention and focus on the oversight and accountability piece of what we do in state government.”
One of many key coverage areas the place that’s been a problem, she mentioned: spending on housing and homelessness applications.
“We are spending billions and billions of dollars … on programs to end homelessness,” she mentioned. “And not only are agencies unable to tell you the program’s working. In some cases, they’re not even able to tell you where the money was. That’s really shameful.”
Final 12 months, the Legislative Analyst’s Workplace flagged delayed reporting on funds for wildfire and forest resilience for instance the place, “reporting has not been provided by the statutory deadlines, making it much less useful for informing decision-making.”
“If you don’t have the reporting, it’s hard to do an oversight hearing that’s as effective,” mentioned Helen Kerstein, one of many legislative analysts, at a June 2023 listening to. “That’s why it’s so critical to have that front-end accountability, to make sure that the state is well-positioned to ensure that the dollars are being spent in the most effective way.”
Be taught extra about legislators talked about on this story.
State regulation requires businesses to submit a printed copy of the experiences to the Secretary of the Senate, an digital copy to the Meeting Chief Clerk’s workplace, and both a printed or digital copy to the Workplace of the Legislative Counsel. The Meeting and Senate every compile a listing of experiences obtained.
Legislators have just lately prioritized extra oversight of how the legal guidelines they go are carried out by authorities businesses. As the brand new session kicked off on Dec. 2, the Legislature introduced new guidelines to scale back the variety of payments lawmakers can introduce — one thing Petrie-Norris thinks will assist.
Final 12 months, within the Meeting, Speaker Robert Rivas additionally reorganized the oversight committee into one centered on the finances to have higher oversight of spending.
“We must ensure that existing state programs are working full-speed ahead,” he mentioned at the beginning of this 12 months’s session, including his oft-repeated manta: “Our job is not just making new laws. It’s looking in the rearview mirror.”
Jeremia Kimelman supplied information evaluation for this story.
Reflecting concern about too many payments, Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas lowered the quantity legislators are allowed to introduce.
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