California Professional Firefighters

Governor Threatens Budget Veto and CPF-Backed Legislation Remains in Limbo

California’s longest budget stalemate in history came to an end yesterday, when the Legislature approved a state spending plan in the early hours of the morning and sent it to the Governor. Shortly after the budget deal was approved, lawmakers released some 850 bills, including a handful of CPF-sponsored or co-sponsored measures that had been approved by the Legislature in recent weeks, but were held back in light of the “No Budget. No Bill Signatures.” moratorium issued by the Governor last month.

After receiving the legislatively approved spending plan, Governor Schwarzenegger announced he would veto the bill, which seeks to bridge the state’s $17 billion deficit via a mix of program cuts, as well as the early collection of certain taxes. With respect to the fire service, the budget approved by legislators does not borrow Prop. 1A funds from local government, but does take from redevelopment agencies for a period of one year (these funds would not be reimbursed). In addition, the final plan struck the insurance fee proposed by the Governor earlier this year as part of his Emergency Response Initiative.

In response to the Governor’s budget veto threat, legislators have since announced their plans to override the veto where a 2/3 vote is needed in each house to do so. In the meantime, the Governor has announced that if the Legislature does in fact override his budget veto, he will in turn veto the backlog of bills now sitting on his desk.

And so, the saga continues. Stay tuned …

Backgrounder: Read previous story on the budget standoff: "CPF State Budget Briefing: Standoff Delays Billions and Threatens CPF-Backed Legislation"