Article IV, Section 12(a) of the California Constitution requires the Governor to submit to the legislature a proposed budget for the ensuing fiscal year within the first ten days of the calendar year. Governor Jerry Brown met this deadline by announcing his proposed budget on January 5, 2012.

I was surprised and dismayed to see that Governor Brown is reviving the idea of combining the departments of Financial Institutions and Corporations. A similar idea was proposed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and introduced as AB 33 (Nava) in the 2009-2010 legislative biennium.