Capitol Alert: Bills go from laugh lines to laws

Earlier this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seized on a measure to end the practice of docking cow tails as an example of frivolous laws being considered by legislators in the height of a budget crisis.

He slammed spending time debating the measure as "inexcusable" during apress conference and ridiculed it on his always buzzing Twitter feed.

But while the bill, SB 135, wasn't considered worthy of debate a few months ago, it was deemed worthy of the "animal lover" governor's signature in the final hours of the bill signing period.

Another bill that went from the butt of the governor's jokes to law last night?

AB 606, a measure creating a California Blueberry Commission to study the booming berry industry.

In a meeting with The Bee editorial board in June, Schwarzenegger suggested that perhaps the constraints of a part-time legislative calendar could press lawmakers to focus on serious work instead of "creating a blueberry commission and all those kind of things."

And in a July 8 press conference, the governor seemed blue in the face over the blueberry bill, the cow tail measure and a third bill to create requirements for labeling honey, which he also signed into law last night.

"Well, it's obviously very sad that we are in the biggest financial crisis and we are way overdue to get the budget done and we face a $26 billion deficit and I ask over and over and over the legislators upstairs to just focus on the budget and here they are, they're debating over the definition of honey. And a week ago they debated over cow tails and, a few weeks before that, they debated over should we have a Blueberry Commission in the state of California and all those kinds of things," he said at the time.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear pointed out that the criticisms came in the midst of the budget negotiations -- when the "the Legislature should focus on the budget above all else."

"At the time he wanted them to focus on the budget, he thought that the budget was the most important issue," he said. "Obviously, the budget is done, and he believes these bills are worth signing."