California has a record number of new legislators this year. Our built-in structural deficit is still there. And the challenge of dealing with the health and welfare of our State's millions of poor looms once again.

Welcome to another two-year session of the California legislature.

Ongoing challenges have tarnished the luster of the Golden State in the last few decades. We are still one of the strongest economies in the world but our inability to deal with some tough, enduring issues continues to create tensions.

Neglected problems have a tendency to grow into monstrous messes. And in 2007 three of those issues will come to a head --- prisons, health care and education.

The record number of new legislators is a result of term limits. Of the 48 new Senators and Assembly Members coming to Sacramento, 34 have never served in either of those capacities before. The other 14 switched houses.

Term limits are a mixed bag. Yes, they prevent entrenched lawmakers from consolidating too much power, but they also prevent them from developing expertise in sometimes esoteric but critical areas, like water policy or budget management.

The net result of limits is a weakened legislature; the experts must come from special interest; and legislators have less incentive to cooperate with the party across the aisle.

The state could use some of that expertise when we deal with long-standing issues such as the built-in budget deficit.

Once known as the land of opportunity and riches, coping with tremendous growth and an overuse of the initiative process changed the state. Proposition 13 --- which dramatically altered our tax and fiscal structure in California --- illustrates both themes and has helped create the deficit.

Not only did it consolidate power in Sacramento and severely limit fiscal option, but it had some built-in inequities such as houses on the same block being taxed at vastly different amounts and commercial property owners paying a decreasing share of the property tax tab.

Another reason for the deficit is that literally 80 percent of the state's $100 billion-plus budget is predetermined. Spending is restricted to what, taken individually, are good causes --- like education or transportation. But collectively, these decisions tend to limit fiscal options.

It is also why --- year after year --- advocates for the poor and vulnerable are fighting hard for benefits people desperately need. Many of those benefits are in the 20 percent that can be changed by the legislature.

The net impact is that economic fluctuations disproportionately impact the poor --- the least able to handle them and the first to suffer from downturns.

Californians do not have particularly burdensome taxes compared to other states, just a system that needs to be looked at from a justice perspective and a bit more common sense.

Putting off the tough issues, or passing short-term fixes, allows problems to grow. Just like Prop 13 resulted from neglect of a bad property tax situation, the three dominant issues of 2007 have also been neglected for too long.

California prisons are overcrowded --- 173,000 prisoners are housed in facilities designed for half that. Not only is that unhealthy and unsafe, but it is degrading, unjust and dangerous for all involved.

The situation is so severe that the courts have placed the health care portion of the prisons under a special master --- a person appointed to ensure the court's orders are being carried out.

If something is not done the entire corrections system is likely to face a similar fate. Neither the governor nor the legislature wants that since it indicates they failed to deal with the situation.

Six million Californians --- almost one in six --- are without health insurance. Approximately 900,000 children do not have health insurance despite the fact that many of them are eligible for existing programs. But because of the fear that some of those that receive coverage will be undocumented, nearly one million children still go without.

It is the working poor who are least likely to have health insurance, and they do not vote with the frequency of the middle class. But the effectiveness and costs of their health care - often in the form of expensive emergency room visits --- could be much better addressed.

Finally, nearly half of every California budget goes to education. Much of the education budget is mandated, although many people have vastly different opinions on how much those mandates require.

California did not take seriously enough the no-child-left-behind regulations coming from the Federal government and must now play catch-up.

Last year we saw a rare display of bipartisanship in the state capitol. And we saw some progress in another long-ignored issue --- basic infrastructure.

Whether that continues is uncertain, but such cooperation among smart people, for the good of all the state is needed. Let's make sure our elected officials do put it off any more.

Steve Pehanich is the executive director of Catholic Charities of California. Contact him at spehanich@cacatholic.org.