Courage Campaign Calls on Speaker Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Steinberg to Override Gov. Schwarzenegger's Line-Item Veto Budget Cuts

 
PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2009

LOS ANGELES — The Courage Campaign mobilized its membership today to urge Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to call a veto override session to stop $489 million in additional budget cuts to vital state services by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“The Legislature has the power to override these vetoes and save the vital services that Arnold Schwarzenegger is out to destroy,” said Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign. “If lawmakers don’t reverse these cuts, California will pay the price in lost lives and higher public health costs for years to come.”

Yesterday, Gov. Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto power to eliminate $489 million in funding. As the Courage Campaign’s email action highlights, here are just a few of the details:

• Cuts HIV/AIDS services by at least $52 million
• Eliminates $178 million for services that provide children with health care
• Reduces support to domestic violence victim services by $16 million 

The Courage Campaign is also helping lead the campaign to hold a Constitutional Convention that can solve the root cause of California’s budget woes.

“When the Governor alone can force cuts that were never agreed to in order to protect his donors from paying their fair share of taxes — and can singlehandedly undermine months of work by lawmakers to craft a budget that will pass our state’s onerous two-thirds requirement — it’s more proof that the system is broken,” added Jacobs.

“The two-thirds rule has strangled our state and failed everyone but corporate special interests. We need to go back to the drawing board with a Constitutional Convention that gives the people of California the power to make our state governable again.”

The Courage Campaign’s action page can be viewed here:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/OverrideTheCuts