Governor signs budget but vetoes nearly $1 billion

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Advocates for the poor were stunned Friday night after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed nearly $1 billion worth of spending on welfare, child care, special education and other programs that had been agreed to during a marathon legislative that ended at sunrise, about 10 hours earlier.

It took the governor less than half a day to find 23 line items to slash from the $87.5-billion general fund budget, including $366 million from the main welfare program, CalWORKS, $256 million from a program for school-aged children of families moving off welfare and $133 million from mental health services for special education students.

‘Governor Schwarzenegger’s final actions in office were directed at making life more difficult for California’s working parents and the poorest, sickest and most elderly Californians. This is disappointing, but not surprising,” said Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles).

-- Jack Dolan in Sacramento