By OLU ALEMORU, Staff Writer
California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, whose historic tenure as the first Black woman to head a state legislative body will end in the new year, cited criminal justice reform and dealing with the budget crisis as notable achievements in her two years in office.
A week after Assemblyman John A. Pérez was confirmed her successor as speaker, Bass, 56, who was elected to the post Feb. 28, 2008, made her remarks Tuesday in an end-of-the-year conference call with Black journalists.
“It was such a short term, but I think the centerpiece was to prevent California from falling over a cliff,” said Bass, referring to the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit. “When I took over, our spending had reached $110 billion, and now it’s $85 billion.”
As a vocal critic of sentencing policies that keep California prison populations the highest in the nation, Bass said she was proud of helping to pass Assembly Bill 750.