Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may be in his last year of office, but he seems more than willing to keep scrapping it out with the Legislature. 

Yesterday the Governor issued a verbal slap-down to liberal Democrat legislative leaders Steinberg and Perez, calling them out for their recent parliamentary games and demanding that they send him clean bills that will cut spending and create jobs. And he made clear that he stands by his promise to oppose any tax increases in 2010 .

The supposedly historic cuts to spending Perez and company have been boasting about?  Just a drop out of the bucket, explained the Governor.  Indeed, the bills the Legislature spent the last nine weeks of special sessions coming up with address just $200 million out of a projected $20 billion budget deficit—one percent.  “California is still spending approximately $600 million more per month than we have in revenue,” the Governor wrote.  “The two-month delay in dealing with the budget shortfall will require up to $2.2 billion in deeper spending cuts.”

Schwarzenegger and GOP legislative leaders blew the whistle on a sneaky gasoline tax maneuver Sacramento Democrats tried to pull off – a bill that not only included a majority-vote tax increase, but it also would also raise taxes on commuter rail services.  The Governor rightly promised to veto this legislation.

He also pointed out that even though he asked the legislature to send him a bill that would repeal taxes on homeowners who sell their homes for less than they owe on their mortgage, the legislature included that fix in a bill that would also increase tax penalties on businesses.  “You are sending me a bill that uses these homeowners as leverage,” he wrote.  “Send me a clean bill that protects homeowners from this tax immediately, and I will sign it.”

Most importantly, the Governor pointed out that the legislature did virtually nothing to stimulate job creation at a time when unemployment is at 12.5%. “Californians don’t have months to wait for action by the Legislature,” he said.

Let’s hope they finally get the message.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.