California’s new Senate leader wants Democrats united. A budget shortfall could divide them

As California legislators return to Sacramento and prepare to tackle a budget deficit, all eyes are on new Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón of Santa Barbara and what tone she sets for her chamber.

Limón, 46, a progressive backed by labor unions and the first Latina to lead the Senate, will face arguably her greatest legislative challenge yet as she and her diverse caucus grapple with a daunting projected $18 billion state budget deficit and historic federal funding cuts from the Trump administration.

While Limón has yet to announce any cost-cutting strategies or impose any limits on lawmakers introducing bills that require new money, the scarcity of funds will likely force the new leader to focus on a few key priorities, a premise she resisted in a recent interview with CalMatters. 

“Our caucus will continue to prioritize issues that our communities prioritize,” Limón said, rattling off a laundry list of policy areas including access to health care, cost of living, education, housing affordability and child care. The new Senate leader also emphasized the importance of finding policy solutions that are “encompassing of our caucus — that reflect 58 counties, 483 cities.” 

But how she’ll do that, while keeping the budget under control, remains to be seen.

For Limón, who has developed a reputation as an egalitarian consensus builder who wants everyone to feel heard, whittling down those priorities will test her ability to say “no” as the caucus tries to both rein in spending and fund programs that help vulnerable Californians. 

She told reporters at the Capitol on Monday that she expects senators to understand that “spending big is not something that is within our means at this moment” and said she would reiterate that message at their first caucus meeting.

Colleagues past and present give her their vote of confidence to lead the chamber through a difficult budget year.

“She’s a good person to have in place when there’s a challenge,” said Kate Parker, who served alongside Limón on the Santa Barbara school board, including as president. “Obviously the budget is going to be horrendous, and she’s somebody that I would really trust to move the state forward in a really difficult time.”

From school board to Senate leader

Limón points to her nine-year tenure in the Legislature and relationships with legislative colleagues as the foundation for her inevitably tough conversations about how to prioritize a mountain of pressing issues.

The new Senate leader is best known for pursuing pay transparency legislation, consumer protections such as shielding medical debt from credit reports, and efforts to regulate the oil industry. She authored a 2022 law that requires setbacks around new oil and gas wells and steps to protect residents who live near old wells, and pushed for an unsuccessful 2021 bill to ban oil fracking. Gov. Gavin Newsom later ordered the ban.

In the Assembly she chaired the Banking and Finance committee and until recently led the Senate committee on natural resources and water. Under two former Senate leaders, Toni Atkins and Mike McGuire, Limón was second-in-command as majority leader for Senate Democrats and helped craft legislative strategy. 

Limón was elected pro tem in June after joining forces with supporters of Sen. Angelique Ashby, a Sacramento Democrat also seeking the role, to amass a majority of the caucus and shut down a competing bid from Sen. Lena Gonzalez of Long Beach. The power jockeying came amid a chaotic week as a federal standoff over immigration enforcement exploded in Los Angeles and the Legislature scrambled to finalize a budget. Limón has since named Ashby as her majority leader.

Prior to running for the Legislature, Limón served six years on the board of trustees for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, the public school system she attended before she immersed herself in public service and policy studies at UC Berkeley and later, graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in education. 

Her first election for public office came in 2009 when Limón ran for an open spot on the Santa Barbara school board. Parker, the former board president who overlapped with Limón during the now-senator’s six-year tenure, said she had never heard of Limón before the election and was even a bit skeptical about her leadership ability. 

“It was kind of out of left field that she was running, and she didn’t have a kid in the district,” said Parker. “She seemed so young to me at the time. You know, I think she was probably like 30 or something. And I just wasn’t sure if she had the experience to be a strong leader in the district.”

But from their first meeting, Limón impressed Parker with her ability to listen to all sides and draw consensus from a group with a wide range of opinions. 

“She was really good at crafting productive compromise,” Parker said. “She had a policy of meeting with anybody that wanted to talk to her.”

Limón has been tight-lipped about how she’ll steer the caucus through budget negotiations. But Parker said Limón is no stranger to difficult spending discussions. Nearly every year they served together, the school board faced budget challenges. 

“Her guiding principle, in that context, was always putting the student first,” Parker said, adding that Limón always tried to keep funding cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.

“I imagine that at the state level, you’ll find that she has guiding principles as well that help with her decision-making process,” Parker said. “It’s not random, it’s not piece by piece. It’s systematic.”

Limón has yet to divulge precisely what those guiding principles will be for the Senate under her leadership. In an interview with CalMatters, she declined to identify any specific legislative measures that the caucus would prioritize. 

But she hasn’t ruled anything out, either. When asked specifically whether her caucus should consider raising taxes or cutting state services, Limón didn’t reject either idea, both considered politically radioactive options.

“Everything’s on the table until we choose, or make a decision that it shouldn’t be on the table,” Limón said. “But having a deliberative and thoughtful conversation about the options in front of us doesn’t mean that we necessarily move forward with all options. It just means that you consider them.”

No bad blood with McGuire

Limón’s reputation as a collaborator and consensus builder contrasts starkly with that of her predecessor, McGuire, who some members, staff and lobbyists have privately called a micromanager.

During last year’s eleventh-hour negotiations over reauthorizing the state’s cap-and-trade program, McGuire reportedly kept the Senate’s draft bill language under lock and key and refused to let members take copies with them to review with staff, instead requiring them to come in person to view the text and banning photos. Advocates said they felt iced out of discussions and had little to no opportunity to give input. 

“We are hopeful that this change in leadership means the beginning of a new and more transparent process,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager for the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

Frustrations boiled over in a September budget subcommittee hearing when lawmakers debated a budget bill that contained more than $85 million in earmarks for projects in McGuire’s northern coastal district. That power play prompted Democratic Napa Sen. Chris Cabaldon to quip in front of the whole committee, “There are more than just a handful of disadvantaged communities, plus the North Coast, in California.”

Limón has tried to tamp down any criticism of her predecessor.

“There was never a moment that this was a comparison of leadership,” Limón insisted. “At the end of the day, this is really about what the caucus wants, the direction the caucus wants to go, the experiences that the caucus feels are needed at this moment in time.”

Limón led the Senate’s working group on the reauthorization of the state’s cap and trade program, a fight at the heart of negotiations on a climate and energy policy deal that dragged out the final days of last year’s legislative session. 

Her greatest challenge, said Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat and fellow member of the working group who she has named as her budget chair, was bridging the gaps between members who wanted to maintain the existing cap-and-trade program largely as-is and the climate hawks, who wanted to ditch some of the concessions former Gov. Jerry Brown gave to polluting industries to win votes during the last reauthorization.

“That was a real test because that was like riding a f-ing bronco,” Laird said. “And yet she worked hard to hold the Senate together. She worked hard to understand what individuals really wanted. And a lot of what we desired was part of the final results because of her work.”