Inside California's Bill Process: Power, Politics & Transparency | Senator Roger Niello
Watch the full episode: YouTube
Episode Summary
California State Senator Roger Niello pulls back the curtain on Sacramento's legislative process, revealing how bills die in darkness on suspense files, how partisan attorneys general editorialize ballot measure language, and why California's super-majority creates governance challenges. From his work on small business protection and ballot measure reform to insights on structural budget deficits and AI regulation, Senator Niello offers a candid look at the realities of state government. This conversation explores the critical need for civics education, the importance of balanced political power, and practical approaches to fiscal responsibility in America's most populous state.
Key Topics: Legislative process, ballot measures, budget deficits, small business protection, ADA lawsuits, civics education, AI regulation, California politics, government transparency, fiscal responsibility
Table of Contents
- Introduction and The Jay Leno District
- Bills in Progress: Right to Cure and Title & Summary Reform
- The Opaque Appropriations Process
- Ballot Measure Bias and Attorney General Influence
- Super-Majority Challenges and Political Balance
- Civics Education and Voter Engagement
- California's Budget Crisis and Structural Deficits
- Behind Closed Doors: The Real Budget Process
- Political Shifts and Demographic Changes
- AI Regulation and Innovation
- Closing Thoughts
Introduction and The Jay Leno District
Evan Meyer: Welcome to Meyer Side Chats, the podcast where leadership, innovation, and governance meets solutions oriented thinking and civil discourse to shape better communities. Today I am honored to be joined by California State Senator Roger Niello. Senator Niello represents the sixth Senate district and brings decades of public service and business experience to Sacramento. He's currently the vice chair of Senate budget Committee amongst a bunch of committees, actually. And he's been a consistent advocate for fiscal responsibility, structural reform, and pragmatic governance. Senator, thank you for joining us today.
Senator Roger Niello: Well, thanks for having me. But you start out saying civil, I've gotta be civil.
Evan Meyer: Oh, well, you know, if we want more clicks, we might as well make this heated and controversial. Let's get into real fiery stuff.
Senator Roger Niello: Yell and scream. No, that's not my style.
Evan Meyer: That's how you get things done, right? Yell and scream at each other.
Senator Roger Niello: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Evan Meyer: My pleasure. So just to kick it off, you woke up this morning. I'm sure there's a ton on your mind about what's going on at the state level or maybe federal level. What's top of mind for you when you woke up this morning in all things politics?
Senator Roger Niello: I wake up usually a few times during the night and things occur to me that I have to get up and write down so that I can go back to sleep again. But, we're on recess now, so top of mind are things that are going on in the district. I'm meeting with a young professionals group in Roseville this morning. So I have to start thinking about what I'm gonna say there. And then we'll be going back into session week after next for the final week of session. And I have several bills that are still alive.
Senator Roger Niello: I'll be thinking more about that now. You mentioned the sixth Senate District, which of course is my district. It's the east side of Sacramento County and South Placer County. And I think it's important for the viewers to know that we call this the Jay Leno district because this is the map of my district. See Jay Leno's profile in there. I couldn't help. I had to make sure we shared that with the audience.
Evan Meyer: Who calls it the Jay Leno district? Just to be clear.
Senator Roger Niello: Well, I showed the map of the district to a friend of mine when I was running for Senate when I first saw the map, that didn't even occur to me, and she said it was on an email exchange. She said, that's the Jay Leno district. And I looked at it again and I had to agree with her.
Evan Meyer: Well, Jay Leno, if you're listening to this quick shout out to you for representing Senator Niello so well.
Senator Roger Niello: Right.
Bills in Progress: Right to Cure and Title & Summary Reform
Evan Meyer: So, tell us, you said a few of these bills are still alive and, you know, I think a lot of people don't understand, especially at the state level, how these things really work. So when you say alive, it was probably killed at some portion throughout the process. There's a long process for a bill to become law, which is actually quite comforting in a lot of ways. But what are those bills? Where did they get stopped? What are those bills? And just tell me a little bit about that process.
Senator Roger Niello: Well, probably the two most important bills to me are the one that deals with giving small businesses the right to cure an ADA Americans with Disabilities access defect without having been sued by it. We have a few predatory lawyers, law firms in California that target small businesses, threaten to sue, but say they'll go away for $5,000 and that's what ends up happening.
Senator Roger Niello: And the other one is I think my communications director talked with you about what we call my title and summary bill. And that is a bill that would transfer to the legislative analyst, the responsibility for writing title and summary statements on ballot propositions. Currently it's in the hands of the Attorney General, which of course is a partisan, elected official. And many times they have a bias on a particular proposition. And that bias will show when they write the short title and summary statement. And unfortunately, a lot of people make up their mind on how to vote based upon the title and summary statement as opposed to the detailed analysis, which the legislative analyst writes anyway. So it'd be no trouble for them to write the title and summary statement, which would be a much less biased statement.
Senator Roger Niello: This bill, obviously, democratic leadership does not want to pass. Although I've gotten it out of the Senate Elections Committee two times in the last three years. But it gets killed in the Appropriations Committee in a rather opaque process, which we can talk about a little bit later. But it died there. That other bill, which we call the Right to Cure Bill is actually a good example of bipartisan collaboration. I have over half of the Democratic caucus as either joint authors or co-authors on that bill, plus my Republican colleagues. And it passed overwhelmingly out of the Senate. That bill, it's not dead. It's still alive in the assembly Judiciary committee because the consultant of that committee doesn't like the bill and so they refuse to give me a hearing. So we're gonna continue to work on that next year.
Senator Roger Niello: And next year I will also introduce once again the title and summary bill. So those are two that are important to me that are not going forward this year. But I do have four bills that are on the suspense file in the assembly appropriations committee and three other bills that are going to the assembly floor.
The Opaque Appropriations Process
Evan Meyer: Just because, you know, something that caught me and it's so important 'cause I read all the documentation in those booklets about bills. And I've had a lot of thoughts of my own about them. Sometimes it's lacking a lot of information. Sometimes it's completely biased, and, you know, having caught this potential for bias is great. But you mentioned that your democratic colleagues do not support this. Why is—
Senator Roger Niello: You mean the title and summary bill? Democratic leadership.
Evan Meyer: Leadership, correct.
Senator Roger Niello: As I said, the bill has passed out of the Senate Elections Committee two times, once in 2023, again now in 2025, I think it was unanimous. And a Democrat is a joint author with me on the bill, so there is support in the troops, if you will. But I'm quite sure that the Attorney General is probably expressing his view to Democratic leadership. And the way the appropriations committee works is bills that are assigned to appropriations—and by the way, this bill has virtually no fiscal impact. They say it does, but for the legislative analyst to write the title and summary statement really would be no additional expense, but nonetheless is sent to the appropriations committee. All bills are put on what's called the suspense file.
Senator Roger Niello: Then bills are voted on to pull off of the suspense file and sent to the floor. But bills that are not voted on, just stay on the suspense file and at the end of the session, they die there. So there's no fingerprints. Nobody casts a vote for or against those bills. They just die in the darkness. That's why I said a few minutes ago, it's a very opaque process. Heavily criticized, but nonetheless, it sticks. It was that way when I was in the assembly and it's that way still, and that's how that bill died.
Ballot Measure Bias and Attorney General Influence
Evan Meyer: And so why do you think he's conveying that message to democratic leadership as the attorney general?
Senator Roger Niello: Well, I don't know that he is, but I have to strongly suspect because it's unexplainable why that bill stays on the suspense file when it passes overwhelmingly out of the elections Committee and never even gets a vote in the appropriations committee.
Evan Meyer: You don't really know the answer to why, which is part of the opaqueness of what you're—
Senator Roger Niello: Exactly, but I speculate that the attorney general is probably opining in the background because the bill would take away from him the ability to editorialize on title and summary statements.
Evan Meyer: Oh boy. Yeah. And I guess anytime you're—
Senator Roger Niello: You're familiar with this redistricting proposal in California and the governor and the Democratic leadership want to put a ballot measure on this coming November for the voters to vote on actual maps that will reduce Republican seats in Congress out of California. Let's just watch and see what that title and summary statement says when that ballot proposition goes to the voters. I suspect it will be a highly biased statement that will recruit support for the proposition as opposed to being completely impartial.
[Transcript continues with remaining sections: Super-Majority Challenges, Civics Education, Budget Crisis, Behind Closed Doors Budget Process, Political Shifts, AI Regulation, and Closing Thoughts covering the full 35-minute conversation]
Written by
Evan Meyer
January 15, 2025