October 16, 2007

How did you rate the guv?

Here is a quick look at how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bill signings and vetoes went in the eyes of a few interest groups. If you know of more lists out there, please send them along…

The California Chamber of Commerce asked publicly for 12 vetoes, and got 12 vetoes. Those measures, which the chamber labels “job killers,” included bills to require all employers to provide health insurance or else pay a fee of 7.5 percent of payroll; put “green building” standards into law; force employers to pay striking employees during a lock-out; end the right to a secret ballot for farm workers deciding whether to unionize; double permanent disability payments to injured workers; and put a new version of the governor’s low-carbon fuel standard into state law.

StopHiddenTaxes.org, a project of the California Taxpayers Association, targeted seven bills for veto, and the governor vetoed five of them and signed two. The two he signed will levy or increase fees to redact Social Security numbers from public county records and subsidize the installation of solar water heaters.

Sierra Club California listed 25 “top environmental bills” and asked Schwarzenegger to sign 24 of them and veto one. He signed 18 of the 24, and also signed the one bill the club asked him to veto. Among the bills he signed that the Sierra Club supported were measures to improve flood control in the Central Valley; strengthen enforcement of diesel emission control rules for off-road vehicles; prohibit the use of the phthalate chemicals in toys and childcare products; create a $250 million program to encourage the installation of solar water heaters; and require the state to develop a comprehensive strategy to increase the energy efficiency and reduce the pollution associated with current lighting technology. The one bill the Sierra Club asked him to veto but which he signed will make it easier for utilities to use hydro-electric power to get credit toward renewable energy requirements.

Equality California listed 8 gay rights bills that the group wanted the governor to sign. He vetoed AB 43 – which would have allowed same-sex marriage in California. But he signed the seven other bills sponsored by the group. Those bills were aimed at ending discrimination against gays and transgender individuals in government and schools and broadening the rights of domestic partners by making it easier for them to change their names when they form a union and file joint tax returns.

FlashReport.org, a conservative blog, listed what it called the 19 “worst” bills of the year from a conservative perspective and asked the governor to veto all of them. He vetoed 8 and signed 11. Among those he signed were two flood control bills, a measure to require increased water efficiency in toilet design, a bill to ban smoking in cars with kids, two gay rights bills, and two to regulate the design of ammunition and firearms in California. He also vetoed three other bills the group opposed but did not include in its list because Schwarzenegger had previously announced he would veto them.

Posted by dweintraub on October 16, 2007 9:35 AM