"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised Tuesday he will veto a state budget that state lawmakers had approved hours earlier,
saying the plan is flawed and would create an even
worse fiscal crisis for California next year," reports Matthew Yi in the Chron.
"'It kicks that can down the alley,' the governor said during a news conference at the
state Capitol. 'And if that wasn't bad (enough), on top of that to give me ... a fake budget reform.'"
For the record, the governor's proposed use of the last of the Prop. 57 bonds in this budget was kicking the can down the
street.
"The budget, which would bridge a $17 billion gap by cutting services and collecting tax
revenue early, is expected to be sent to Schwarzenegger's office today. Schwarzenegger would be the first governor
to veto a budget in the state's modern history.
"If he acts immediately, the Assembly will convene Thursday
and vote to override the veto, said
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker
Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County). Other legislative leaders also pledged to oppose
a veto by the governor."
The governor, though, has said he'll veto the budget on Friday.
"An override is likely because it requires the same
two-thirds vote needed to approve the budget - which the Assembly passed by a 66-1 vote and the Senate approved 28-12.
[T]he governor said that if the Legislature overrides
his veto he
would respond by sending 'the hundreds of bills that sit on my desk
back to legislators with my veto.'
However, not all votes that were there for passage
will be there for an override. Capitol Alert reports
that Sharon Runner won't be pushing the green button this time around.
Meanwhile, Lite Gov John Garamendi and Schools Supe Jack O'Connell issued statements supporting the governor's veto; however, mostly because they want more spending. Jerry Brown issued a can't-we-all-get-along statement.
Dan Walters praises the governor for finding a backbone...sort
of. "The overarching irony of the situation is that if Schwarzenegger
had shown this kind of backbone five years ago, he
wouldn't have such a whopping deficit today. He should have
reneged on his foolish promise to reinstate a multibillion-dollar "car tax" cut and he should have been much tougher on Democrats
over spending in his first year.
"Later is better than never, one supposes, but we still
don't know whether this burst of political courage is real
and permanent, or just another hollow gesture, another
line in the sand that will be erased by tomorrow's tide."
Dan Weintraub writes that this is the opportunity to get the people of California to wake
up. "What the state desperately needs is a multiyear workout
plan that suspends every spending mandate until revenues
again match projected expenditures. If borrowed money
is going to be part of the plan, it must be used only
as a bridge to cushion the blow on services until revenues
catch up with spending. Using borrowed money to sustain
ongoing spending at current levels is a recipe for
disaster, because the money will run out while the
spending will be programmed to continue, and grow.
"California also needs someone to stand up and be brutally
honest with the people. The message: This cannot continue. We must pay more taxes to finance
the services we are getting from government, or we
must reduce the cost of those services to a level we
are willing to support with the taxes we are paying
now.
"Schwarzenegger can be that messenger. Now that he has
decided to veto this budget, the people of California
might actually listen."
Unfortunately, said people don't read newspapers anymore.
The Bay Area Council is using the situation to support its call for a Constitutional
Convention. The AP's Judy Lin reports:
"A constitutional convention was used nearly a century
ago to wrest California's government from the hands of railroad barons. Today,
some say it could help the state out of its current
political dysfunction.
"The Bay Area Council, which represents the chief executives
of Google, Yahoo, Chevron, Wells Fargo and other major
San Francisco Bay area businesses, is leading the charge
for a state constitutional convention to revamp state
government.
"'This year's budget deadlock shows better than perhaps any other
recent event that our state needs a constitutional
convention to fix a governance system that is hopelessly
broken,' Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council,
said in a statement."
The Bee reports:
"Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, had a special reason to hope that Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger wouldn't veto a proposed state budget. He's getting married. Levine will tie the knot with KCRA-TV journalist Edie Lambert on Saturday in Seattle, where the two met in 2005 on a chance airport encounter while visiting relatives
for Thanksgiving Day. They plan a honeymoon in Greece."
This hits home with one of your Roundup co-authors, who had 12 guests unable to attend his wedding due to the impasse.
Or at least that was the excuse they used.
Capitol Weekly combs through the signatures on the CCPOA-backed recall petition, and finds at least one familiar name.
"
Many Capitol observers have dismissed the recall of
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a political ploy cooked
up by the state prison guards union to tweak the governor
and help the embattled head of the union secure reelection.
But a closer look at the recall petition filed last
week shows some other labor heavyweights are interested
in the possibility.
Willie Pelote, the head lobbyist for the American Federation
of State County and Municipal Employees was among the
85 people who signed the recall petition submitted to
the Secretary of State by the California Correctional
Peace Officers Association last week.
"We’re in worse goddamn shape than when we had Gray [Davis],
so you can make of that what you will," Pelote said Monday.
But Pelote said his signature did not mean that his
union was in support of the recall.
"Our union has not taken a position on the recall yet," Pelote said. "I signed as a private human being, and a private citizen."
"California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has asked a federal judge to reject a request by the
overseer of prison healthcare to seize $8 billion from the state treasury for a construction plan that is shrouded 'under a veil of secrecy,'" reports Michael Rothfeld in the times.
"Brown, in a filing with U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Monday and in an interview Tuesday, said the order
sought by court-appointed federal receiver J. Clark Kelso to raid the state treasury would violate California's sovereign rights.
"He said it also would transgress other provisions of
the U.S. Constitution and federal law governing prisons,
and would have a catastrophic effect on the state's already shaky finances.
"Kelso has asked Henderson to hold Brown's clients, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller
John Chiang, in contempt of court for failing to provide the funding."
And a pardon of all incarcerated circus clowns!
"A state appellate court has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality
of a California law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants can move forward," writes Anna Gorman in the Times.
"A group of out-of-state students and parents filed a lawsuit in 2005 in Yolo County Superior Court against California's public university and community college systems,
alleging that they were being charged higher tuition
and fees than undocumented immigrants.
"A lower court dismissed the suit, but the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled Monday
the case could continue.
"The out-of-state students argue that federal law requires states
that provide in-state rates to undocumented immigrant students to offer
the same benefit to out-of-state students."
And finally, from our Fishing in India Files, the Daily
Telegraph reports, 2cm long fish apparently found it's way into the penis of a 14-year-old boy from India in a bizarre medical case.
The
patient was admitted to hospital with complaints of
pain, dribbling
urine and acute urinary retention spanning a 24-hour period. According
to the boy, the fish slipped into his penis while he
was cleaning his
aquarium at home.
"Professor Vezhaventhan and Professor Jeyaraman, who
treated the boy
and later wrote a paper on the case, explained: "While he was cleaning
the fish tank in his house, he was holding a fish in
his hand and went
to the toilet for passing urine. When he was passing
urine, the fish
slipped from his hand and entered his urethra and then
he developed all
these symptoms."
Ouch.
