State Legislative - Week of January 8, 2010

 

The California Legislature reconvened for the second half of the 2009/2010 legislative session on January 4, 2010

 

 

 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released his proposed 2010-11 state budget on Friday, January 08, 2010.  His $82.9 billion budget proposal will close an estimated $19.9 billion budget deficit without any new tax increases. The budget plans to address the budget deficit with:

 

• $8.5 billion in state spending reductions in public services, state employee costs; and state prison operations;
• $6.9 billion in anticipated new federal funds, and
• $4.5 billion in funding shifts.

 

The Governor declared another fiscal emergency and called for another special legislative session to begin budget negotiations immediately to keep the state budget deficit from growing another $2.4 billion.

 

Subscriber Notifications; Change in Service.  SB 437 (Pavley) would require a “local exchange service provider” to notify customers at least 60 days in advance of any proposed change to its service. The notice must be placed on the front page of the paper billing statement or online statement. SB 437 would also prohibit charging customers an early termination fee if the customers cancel service within 30 days of the effective date of the service change.

Initially, SB 437 proposed to eliminate retail charges for unlisted directory services but the Author withdrew that proposal. This bill is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee on Wednesday, January 13th.   CCTA position is OPPOSE.