From the Sacramento Bee:

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Monday that Gerald Parksy, a longtime Republican political figure, will chair the tax commission she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed in late October.

The commission, according to the executive order Schwarzenegger signed, will release a report on how to modernize California’s tax structure on April 15, 2009.

The commission has gotten off to a slow start, however.

On October 30, Schwarzenegger said, “Speaker Bass and the Senate President pro Tem and I will name 12 commission members in time for them to begin their work in November.”

But as of yet no one has been officially named to the commission. Bass said the names of the 12 commissioners would be released this Thursday.

That will give the members just about five months to design the overhaul of the state’s tax structure.