Russ Steele
A regular reader sent this in the e-mail. Your government at work.
Each bill passed by the Legislature shall be presented to the Governor. It becomes a statute if it is signed by the Governor. The Governor may veto it by returning it with any objections to the house of origin, which shall enter the objections in the journal and proceed to reconsider it.California Constitution, Article IV, §10 (a)
• Schwarzenegger has set a record for signing the fewest bills in a single year, approving only 632 of the measures that reached his desk in the 2009 regular session.
• The Legislature passed just 872 bills in 2009, the fewest in more than 40 years.
• Schwarzenegger vetoed 240 bills (27.52%), down from last year’s record of 414 vetoes.
• Schwarzenegger signed the lowest annual average number of bills (790 a year over six years).
• Deukmejian vetoed the most bills (2,298 over eight years). However, with 1,673 vetoes over his six years, Schwarzenegger is close to Deukmejian’s rate of 287 vetoes a year.
• Deukmejian vetoed the most bills in a single year (436 in 1990).
• Schwarzenegger has vetoed nearly twice as many bills in six years (1,673) as Reagan did in eight years (843).
• In his five years, Davis vetoed twice as many bills (1,098) as Brown did in eight years (528).
• In 1982, Brown vetoed just 30 bills, setting the record for the lowest number of vetoes.
• Wilson signed the fewest bills of any recent, two-term governor (9,324 over eight years).
• Although political conservatives, Deukmejian and Reagan signed more bills than Brown, the more activist liberal.
• The five years with the highest number of chaptered bills were all with Republican governors (1971, 1984, 1967, 1990, 1988).
