Our holiday edition of the Capital Notes Podcast features a conversation with Leon Panetta about the issue of the year: budget gridlock.

Panetta, the well-known former White House chief of staff and congressman from Monterey, is now spending considerable time leading the bipartisan organization California Forward. Their mission: help provide substantive ideas on how to end the annual saga of stalemate over the state budget in Sacramento.

I spoke to Panetta for a story on budget reform that aired this morning on The California Report; this podcast includes the entire interview. The ideas put forward are intriguing, and substantive. Getting any of them put into place, though, is no easy task... and Panetta knows that.

The organization's proposals are listed in detail here.

[Note: Barring breaking news that I can cover, or add something substantive to, from back east while on holiday... return for more Capitol news the week after next. In the meantime, Happy New Year... and wake me when the budget crisis is solved. --JM]