As I sit down (at midnight) to write the commentary for Saturday, I’m having a hard time caring about anything other than whether or not the L.A. Dodgers make it into post-season play, having just returned from a nail-biter at AT&T Park where the Dodgers eked out a 4-3 win to keep their post-season chances alive.  But I think I’ll get a note from Jon Fleishman if I subject FR readers to a commentary analyzing my team’s chances of making to the playoffs.  Back to the reality of state politics…

Today is the last day of bill signing for the governor.  I’m sure his legislative staff has their bubbly on ice, since they’ve worked long and hard all year, especially in these last few weeks.  Personally, I’m glad that bill signing is wrapping up, ending the guessing game about what action the Governor would take on what bill.  But I’m afraid I have no sparkling wine chilling because there were too many bills signed this year that I would have like to see vetoed.  But I cannot ignore the fact that the governor did use his veto pen to kill bad laws and rein in excessive spending.   Here are a few examples:

–SB 1162 (Cedillo) would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain California drivers licenses.  Logic would have dictated that the governor veto this bill after vetoing similar bills in the past, but given his big tilt to the left this year, it was hard to feel sure of anything.

–A group of bills were vetoed yesterday that collectively would have resulted in additional $100 million in state spending.

— AB 2937 (Pavley) would have required a study of the California High School Exit Exam and SB 1546 (Alarcon) would have allowed college districts to circumvent the exit exam process.  Both bills deserved a veto.

— SB 815 (Perata) and AB 2942 (Koretz) would have watered down the reforms to the state’s workers compensation program enacted in 2004.  These reforms were badly needed and have resulted in new jobs and a stronger economy.

— SB 840 (Kuehl) would have created a single payer health care system to provide health insurance coverage to all California residents.

— AB 2317 (Koretz) would have created the state-run Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD) Community Awareness Campaign to increase awareness and provide education to pregnant women and new mothers on postpartum mood and anxiety disorders.  Why do the Democrats want the state to get involved in every public service campaign on the planet?  Let’s leave these types of educational campaigns to non-profits and celebrities.  The governor was right to veto this bill.

–A host of bills that duplicate existing state law, such as AB 264 (Chan) which would have required health plans to include coverage for outpatient training and education necessary to use the medications and devices prescribed for the treatment of pediatric asthma.  The governor’s veto message pointed out that signing this bill would have created a duplicative health care mandate.

The governor still has several hundred bills to act on today, including seven on the FlashReport’s list of 20 Really Bad Bills.  Check out that list on Sunday to see what the governor’s final batting average is for the year.  Batting average…hummmm….that leads me right back to the Dodgers and their playoff chances!  Go Blue!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.