Jul 3, 2009 2:12 pm US/Pacific
Schwarzenegger Visits SF, Discusses Budget Urgency
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
-
-
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks on the status of the state budget.
David McNew/Getty Images
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in San Francisco Friday urging state legislators to come to a budget compromise to solve California's $26.3 billion deficit.
Schwarzenegger, in a news conference at his local criticized the Legislature for what he said was a "piecemeal approach" to budget negotiations.
His appearance in San Francisco comes at the end of a long week of budget negotiations with the Legislature.
Schwarzenegger vetoed a budget bill Tuesday because it did not address the entire deficit. On Wednesday, the governor proclaimed a fiscal emergency and called for state workers to take a third unpaid furlough day each month on top of the two they were already forced to take.
The fiscal emergency requires the Legislature to come to a compromise on the budget within 45 days or be barred from addressing any non-budgetary issues.
Schwarzenegger already announced Wednesday that he will not sign any legislation until a solution for the entire budget deficit is in place.
On Thursday, California State Controller's Office officials also began sending out IOUs instead of payments to vendors that have contracts with the state.
The governor said that the Legislature's response to the budget problem "was really not a response at all, it was an invitation to create an even bigger budget crisis."
Schwarzenegger, who also visited Los Angeles and Fresno on Thursday before coming to San Francisco, said he was going up and down the state to communicate the urgency of the situations to Californians.
He said the lack of a compromise "sends the message to the Californian people that says you the people have to make sacrifices, but we in Sacramento don't want to make any sacrifices and create any change whatsoever."
Schwarzenegger pointed to Democrats as a reason for the stalled negotiations, and asked them to agree to some of the cuts proposed in his May Revision budget rather than raising taxes.
"Everyone basically wants to get this done," he said. "Look, no one, Democrats or Republicans, want to have IOUs out there. They don't want to have the whole world watch us go through this difficult time."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
Complete Bay Area Election Results
Click to enlarge
Fatal Big-Rig Plunge Off Bay Bridge S-Curve 58 mins ago 
Eureka Man Arrested In Petaluma On Gun Charges 7 mins ago
Stumble It!
Comments