League of California Cities Priority Focus Edition #47 dated December 19 2008. IN THIS ISSUE: Page 4: Gov. Schwarzenegger Launches Bank on California Page 5: Honoring Excellence in Public Works Call for James L. Martin Award Nominations NLC and CH2M HILL Nominations Open for 2009 Awards for Municipal Excellence Program Find a Bill Legislators Leg Committee or Ask League Leg Staff December 19 2008 Issue #47 2008 GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES HE WILL VETO $18.1 BILLION BUDGET PACKAGE An hour after Democrats in the Senate and Assembly pushed through an $18.2 billion budget package yesterday Gov. Schwarzenegger announced that he would veto the package because it included some but not enough of the economic stimulus measures he wants. For more see Page 2. 2008 DECEMBER BUDGET BILLS: PRELIMINARY SUMMARY These measures comprise the package of bills passed by the Legislature on December 18 in the First Extraordinary Session and sent to the governor for signature. Few of the bills were available in print at the time they were taken up for vote. They are now all available online. The following summarizes key provides of these bills. For more see Page 2. MAJORITY VOTE BUDGET PACKAGE WAS THE LATEST EFFORT TO CLOSE DEFICIT The $18.1 billion budget package passed yesterday was a daring move by Democrats who were clearly determined to find a way to circumvent the Republicans refusal to vote for revenue increases. In fact two separate proposals had also been proposed this week by Republicans and Democrats; each had been rejected on a partisan basis. For more see Page 4. Veto Continued from Page 1 He did not reference the Republicans objections that the revenue measures in the package required a 2/3 vote rather than the simple majority vote used to pass the measures by the Democrats. The package of 12 majority vote only bills aimed to cut state expenses and raise revenues to close the state s $40 billion 18 month budget deficit. It achieves about $18.1 billion General Fund savings split roughl...
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