It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the status of Bay Area Assemblywoman Fiona Ma’s legislation to create the California Blueberry Commission (at a time when California legislators should be striving to drastically reduce the number of state boards and commissions).
We only caught on to this outrageous piece of legislation, AB 606, after it had already passed out of the State Assembly. Last month (National Blueberry Appreciation Month, I might add), the State Senate Food and Agriculture Committee narrowly passed the bill. However, not without bipartisan opposition. That committee has only five members — three Democrats and two Republicans. With Democrat Loni Hancock opposing the bill, Republicans could have ended the quixotic quest for a State Blueberry Commission right then and there. But while Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth voted with Hancock against AB 606, Republican Abel Maldonado voted with Democrats Dean Florez and Fran Pavley to pass it!
The bill will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 17th.
It is our hope that the the Blueberry Commission bill will be "pressed flat" in Appropriations. We’ll see what happens. Given that this legislation was called out by the Governor at a video taped meeting of the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board as an example of what legislators should not be doing during a fiscal crisis (and we still have a fiscal crisis) — I would be looking for a veto if it does get to his desk.
In the meantime, on April 15th (when Americans were forking over big bucks to the federal government), when the Assembly passed the AB 606), Assemblywoman Ma tweeted thusly: