Capitol Alert: Steinberg calls governor's budget vetoes 'gratuitous'

Democrats believed that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would line-item veto about $500 million in spending items, but they were never told which particulars he would cut, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Wednesday.

The Sacramento Democrat said he never thought the Republican governor would veto as much as $962.5 million.

"We presented the governor a list of items that we believed were worthy of protection and these items were on the list," Steinberg said, referring to child care for low-income parents, child welfare services and mental health services for special education students.

"The governor did not make any iron clad deal promises on the list, but that's sort of beside the point," Steinberg added. "We negotiated an agreement, and he ultimately has the constitutional authority to blue pencil. But he also has the responsibility to make sure he uses that blue pencil in a way that is judicious and in a way that is compassionate. And this is gratuitous."

Under the $256 million child care cut, former welfare-to-work participants now employed in low-income jobs would lose subsidized care for their children starting Nov. 1. Steinberg held a press conference Wednesday at a Discovery Tree School in downtown Sacramento to protest the vetoes.

Schwarzenegger said he needed to cut as much as he did to build a prudent reserve of $1.3 billion. That was roughly the level of reserve he proposed earlier this year, though it is not clear how the governor landed on that particular reserve size. Last year, Schwarzenegger used his line-item authority to establish a reserve of only $500 million. California ended the last fiscal year with a $4.8 billion deficit.

Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said Wednesday of the $1.3 billion reserve, "That's a level he deemed be appropriate for this budget given this fiscal environment." Palmer added that the $300 million reserve the Legislature built was "unacceptably low."

Steinberg made the argument that Schwarzenegger's cuts were "cruel" and "callous." He implied that because California may run another deficit this fiscal year, it would not make much difference whether the reserve is $500 million lower.

"A $1.5 billion reserve instead of a billion-dollar reserve?" Steinberg said. "We all know we're going to have budget challenges next year. It's not necessary."

Palmer acknowledged that the child-care cut could burden some working families in California, though he said other public childcare options are available, ranging from "general" child care to a voucher program.

"Each of these line-item vetoes involved trade offs and tough choices, and this veto will provide significant challenges for many," Palmer said.

Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, said the problem with other programs is that they have wait lists that are income-dependent. Many of the families being kicked off their current child care programs would be among the higher-income participants because they are already employed. He suggested that parents may be forced to leave their jobs and return to welfare-to-work programs without child care support.

Steinberg said Democrats will seek to reverse the cuts in January when the next governor takes office. He said Democrats would have a better chance of reversing the cuts with Democrat Jerry Brown in office. But he also suggested that the cuts could be part of a larger mid-year budget discussion that involves even broader changes in the spending plan.