The Legislature adjourned for their summer recess on July 15. It has been an intensely busy year in Sacramento and recess couldn’t have come soon enough.

On June 28, Governor Newsom signed California’s $267 billion budget. However, as we’ve reported previously, the signed budget contains the appropriations to spend state funds, but much work continues to finalize the budget behind the scenes. The annual Budget Act is always accompanied by a number of “trailer bills” which enact policy changes needed to implement the budget.

Last Wednesday the Secretary of State sent a letter to the Department of Finance (DOF) that among other things said “The Secretary of State is hereby notifying the Department of Finance that the proponents of the recall effort against Governor Gavin Newsom have submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures to initiate a recall election.”

June marks the halfway point in the legislative calendar. By early June,  most bills must pass out of the house they were introduced in to keep moving. The only exceptions are urgency bills and constitutional amendments which must be passed on a 2/3 vote of the Legislature.

Many of our updates in the last year have focused on the challenges Governor Newsom has been facing. It isn’t a stretch to say that he has held the office during the most challenging moment in history since World War II, and arguably ever.