IN SUMMARY
State companies and commissions charged with making ready stories for the Legislature on the operation of recent legal guidelines typically don’t submit them on time or in any respect.
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California lawmakers approve almost 1,000 new legal guidelines yearly. How have you learnt in the event that they work?
Many new legal guidelines embody a requirement to submit progress stories to the Legislature, however state companies and commissions assigned to organize these stories typically don’t submit them on time, or in any respect, in response to the Legislature’s web site.
Of the 867 stories that had been due between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9 of this yr, 84% haven’t been submitted to the Legislative Counsel’s Workplace, in response to a CalMatters evaluation. Of the 16% that had been submitted (138 stories), 68 had been submitted after the deadline. One other 344 stories have to be submitted by December 31.
Some companies instructed CalMatters the stories had been full however had not been correctly filed with the Legislative Counsel’s Workplace, as required by state legislation. It’s unclear how most of the lacking stories had been filed incorrectly.
The info match earlier CalMatters stories which discovered that 70% of the roughly 1,100 stories due between February 2023 and February 2024 had not been submitted to the Workplace of Legislative Counsel. About half of those that confirmed up confirmed up late.
Lawmakers say a scarcity of information could make it tough to determine, for instance, whether or not to present more cash to a program.
The assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norrisan Irvine Democrat who beforehand chaired an Meeting administrative oversight committee, says delayed or lacking info is a “huge problem and a huge challenge.”
“We have to make sure we make data-driven decisions and evaluate programs using real information,” he stated. “I don’t think there’s enough attention and focus on oversight and accountability of what we do in state government.”
One of many key coverage areas the place this has been an issue, he stated, is spending on housing and homeless packages.
“We are spending billions and billions of dollars on programs to end homelessness,” he stated. “And never solely can companies not let you know if this system is working. In some instances, they can not even let you know the place the cash is. “That’s really embarrassing.”
Final yr, the Legislative Analyst’s Workplace famous Delay in reporting on forest and wildfire resilience funding for instance that “the reports have not been provided within the legal deadlines, making them much less useful in informing decision-making.”
“If you don’t have the reports, it’s difficult to have an oversight hearing that is as effective,” Helen Kerstein, one of many legislative analysts, stated in a June 2023 listening to. “That’s why it’s so important to have that upfront accountability, to make sure the state is well positioned to ensure dollars are spent in the most effective way.”
State legislation requires companies to ship a paper copy of the stories to the Secretary of the Senate, an digital copy to the workplace of the Chief Clerk of the Meeting, and a paper or digital copy to the Workplace of the Legislative Counsel. The Meeting and Senate put together a listing of the stories acquired.
Just lately, lawmakers have prioritized better oversight of how authorities companies execute the legal guidelines they move. When the brand new session started on Dec. 2, the Legislature introduced new guidelines to cut back the variety of payments lawmakers can introduce, one thing Petrie-Norris believes will assist.
Final yr, within the Meeting, the president Roberto Rivas He additionally reorganized the oversight committee into one centered on the price range to have higher oversight of spending.
“We must ensure that existing state programs are firing on all cylinders,” he stated firstly of this yr’s session, including his oft-repeated line: “Our job is not only to make new legal guidelines. It is wanting within the rearview mirror.”
Jeremia Kimelman supplied knowledge evaluation for this story.
- This text was initially printed in English by CalMatters.