Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Chris Woods

28. Chris Woods

Jason Sisney’s opposite number in the Senate is Chris Woods, who is Senate Leader Toni Atkins’ top budget adviser. For a budget expert, the times are Dickensian – it really is the best of times and the worst of times. The interminable pandemic is hanging on, in spades, but the budget’s revenues are stratospheric, which means that Woods is a relatively happy camper. The state budget this year had a reported $100 billion in unanticipated revenues, nearly twice that of last year, and three times the year before. But Woods has been through flush times before, and he knows the extra dough rests on the tax payments of a handful of billionaires and a smattering of millionaires; it could disappear overnight. The toughest part of Woods’ role isn’t accountancy, it’s finding ways to get funding for Democratic programs, which he manages to do, despite the political crosscurrents in the upper house. Woods has undergraduate and Law School degrees from UC Davis.

(Updated Aug. 9, 2022)