Karen Bass sworn in as California Assembly speaker

Los Angeles Democrat Karen Bass promised urgent action to solve California’s budget crisis today as she was sworn in as Assembly speaker, the first African American woman to hold the post in the Legislature’s 159-year history.

Bass, chosen by her peers in February to lead the 80-member Assembly, was sworn in by outgoing Speaker Fabian Nuñez in a ceremony in its ornate chambers.

“California is a giant in crisis, and now it is up to us to solve that crisis,” Bass told her Assembly colleagues. “It is up to us to take the fear out of California’s future.”

Bass announced that she had asked former governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis to help set up a bipartisan commission to study overhauling the state’s tax structure. The panel will be asked to come up with recommendations “to identify more consistent sources of revenue,” Bass said.

Bass entered the chambers to enthusiastic applause from her colleagues and the packed gallery. Also on hand to witness the swearing in were Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Nuñez, who called Bass’ accomplishment “extraordinary.”

Said Schwarzenegger: “I know, having had several conversations with Speaker Bass, that we are also going to have a great relationship.”

The 54-year-old lawmaker takes over official duties at a crucial time: On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger will release a plan to address a budget shortfall that he says could be as much as $20 billion. His negotiations with Bass and other legislative leaders on spending cuts and tax increases will then begin in earnest.

Bass has said that she wants a balanced approach to the budget that protects vital services.

She is the second woman to lead the Assembly, after Orange County Republican Doris Allen, who held the post for three months in 1995.

Unlike most of her colleagues, Bass held no elected office before joining the Assembly. She won her seat in 2004, representing a district that includes West Los Angeles, Culver City and Baldwin Hills.

Bass, a physician’s assistant raised in the Venice-Fairfax area, left the medical field in the early 1990s to try to find solutions for drug addiction, gun violence and other social ills she witnessed in treating emergency room patients.

The nonprofit group she founded, the Community Coalition, helped limit the number of liquor stores that reopened in South Los Angeles after the 1992 riots.

 nancy.vogel@latimes.com

 patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com