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Governor’s veto ‘record’ sends sober message
| Sunday, Oct 5 2008 11:13 PM
Last Updated: Sunday, Oct 5 2008 11:13 PM
When the deadline passed last week to sign legislation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger set a record. He vetoed more bills this session than his predecessors had vetoed in four decades.
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Of the 1,187 pieces of legislation Schwarzenegger considered this year, he signed 772 bills and vetoed 415. He received 875 of those bills shortly before the Sept. 30 deadline.
The governor had threatened to veto all pending bills unless legislators ended their budget stalemate that stretched 85 days into the next fiscal year. To avoid the veto threat, lawmakers delayed sending legislation to the governor, shortening Schwarzenegger’s consideration of hundreds of bills from the traditional 30 days to 11.
Schwarzenegger’s record: He vetoed 35 percent of the bills the Legislature sent him. The next highest rate since 1967, when state officials started keeping records, was Gov. Gray Davis’s 25 percent in 2000. Gov. George Deukmejian has the record for vetoing the most number of bills in a single year — 436 in 1990. And Gov. Jerry Brown the fewest — 30 in 1982.
Democrats are howling, claiming Gov. Schwarzenegger should be ashamed. Republicans, who also saw some of their bills go down in flames, are more restrained. After all, minority party members had opposed most of the legislation Schwarzenegger vetoed.
There’s lots of hand-wringing and threats, with Democrats claiming they will have difficulty working with Schwarzenegger when the next session begins Dec. 1.
They and their Republican colleagues should have thought about these consequences when they went into overtime to craft a gimmicks-filled state budget.
Listen closely. Gov. Schwarzenegger sent a clear and sobering message with his vetoes.
The state and national economy is already in the tank and likely to worsen. Efforts to really close the existing $16 billion state budget gap were fiction. We already know state revenues are falling short.
It’s time to control spending, put aside frivolous legislation and focus on California’s serious financial problems.
Sure, some important and meaningful legislation was tossed out with the soapy “dumb bills” bath water. And whose fault was that?
Democrats are chafing at the message Schwarzenegger slapped on more than 130 of the bills he vetoed last week. Kern’s very own state Sen. Dean Florez called the record number of vetoes and Schwarzenegger’s 78-word generic veto message “political laziness.”
They should heed the governor’s words in the message: “The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State Budget has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to my desk at the end of the year's legislative session. Given the delay, I am only signing bills that are the highest priority for California. This bill does not meet that standard and I cannot sign it at this time.”
Legislators: End these stupid state budget stalemates. End the autopilot spending. Limit legislation to “the highest priority for California,” rather that the highest priority for special interests and campaign contributors.