OVERRIDE CHALLENGE #1
It would appear that the first major sticky wicket has popped up in efforts to override the pending veto by Governor Schwarzenegger of the budget that has been shipped his was by the legislature. One (unfortunate) component of this compromise budget is that around $5 billion dollars of the "gap" (the shortfall that needed to be made up because Republicans correctly refuse to raise taxes and Democrats refuse to make more needed cuts in spending) is "made up" by forcing California taxpayers to, in essence, pay their taxes earlier in the year.
That particular component of the budget deal was in a trailer bill which required only a majority vote. To my understanding, no GOPers went up on that rather ugly part of the sausage-deal.
Well, if the Governor does veto the budget and trailer bills, suddenly that component part will need a 2/3 vote — which means a pretty good number of Republicans would have to suck it up and vote for it.
That may very well happen — especially if the Governor isn’t willing to take his monstrous and ill-advised multi-billion dollar sales tax off the table.
Still, this is the first major hiccup on a potential override vote.
OVERRIDE CHALLENGE #2
We are hearing through the tom-toms that the Governor is threatening to withhold using his "blue pencil" (line-item veto) on this budget. Part of this plan calls for the Governor to "delete" a big chunk of spending that is placed on his desk. This is usually "cover" for liberals who can say they voted to fund a program, and "blame" the Governor for then cutting it.
This would be another threat targeted to make it harder for GOPers to go up on an override.
UPDATE TO CHALLENGE #2
I had an "informed reader" tell me that the actual deal here is that the Governor’s blue-lining is actually just a fancy word for a very targeted veto. So if he vetoes the entire budget, and it is overridden, then he can’t "re-veto" this portion of the budget again. And the budget doesn’t balance without these cuts. Interesting… Anyone else with insights can drop me a line…