Schwarzenegger Will Veto California Budget, Override Vote Expected

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday afternoon that he will veto the budget bills that the state Legislature passed early Tuesday morning.

The budget failed to meet his demand for budget reforms, Schwarzenegger said, because while it includes a rainy-day fund, the proposal passed by the Legislature would allow lawmakers to tap the fund in any year, not just in years when revenues come in below projections, as the governor wants.

He called it “fake budget reform.”

The legislature’s spending plan, enacted 11 weeks into the fiscal year, has come under fire because it effectively balances the current year budget by borrowing billions of dollars from the following year, largely by accelerating tax withholding.

“It really is a tax increase,” Schwarzenegger said of the budget.

“I will not sign a get-out-of town budget,” Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger said he expects lawmakers to override his veto, which requires the same two-thirds vote needed to pass the budget in the first place.

But he said if that happens, he will veto several hundred of the more than 800 other bills awaiting his signature this year.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, issued a quick statement in response.

 “Frankly, a veto simply puts the governor in the starring role in California’s financial disaster,” Perata said.

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