By signing 478 of the 707 bills sent to his desk in the final days of the 2009 legislative session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went into the record books as the stingiest governor in recent history, having approved just 632 legislative measures this year.
According to veteran legislative staffer Peter Detwiler, who has tracked the flow of legislation over the last several decades, Schwarzenegger broke his own record of 729 approved bills, set just last year. In fact Schwarzenegger's total has declined annually for the last four years.
However, by vetoing 229 of those late session bills, Schwarzenegger failed to set a new record for rejections, which is held by George Deukmejian, a Republican governor of the 1980s, who in 1990 vetoed 436 measures. Schwarzenegger is in second place with 414 vetoes in 2008.
One reason for the low numbers is that the Legislature has not been passing many bills of late. The number has been dropping steadily from a high of 1,725 in 1967, Ronald Reagan's first year as governor (he vetoed just 83 of them) to this year's 872, the lowest number in more than 40 years.
With this year's numbers, Detwiler calculates, Schwarzenegger solidifies his standing as the governor who vetoed the hghest percentage of bills reaching his desk, 35.17 percent so far. He's also dead last among governors in total bills signed, although he's still got another year to go in his seven-year gubernatorial reign.
Torey Van Oot and the Bee Capitol Bureau report on the people and politics of California government. Get 
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.