New maps, new building, new bills greet California lawmakers

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have returned to the state Capitol in an election year to begin an eight-month session shaded by uncertainty but buoyed by a second consecutive year of massive budget surpluses. Legislators are now temporarily housed in a new $424 million office building a few blocks from the Capitol while their old offices in the attached Annex are razed and replaced. And lawmakers will run in new legislative districts in the June primary and November general elections after boundary lines were redrawn based on the 2020 census. Returning lawmakers on Monday immediately began unveiling new legislation they intend to seek in the new year.