Schwarzenegger's vetoes anger legislators

First he took hostage a year's worth of their work -- about 1,000 pieces of legislation -- threatening to veto the bills until lawmakers sent him a budget. Then, with a spending plan finally in place, he rejected their proposals at a record high rate, 35%, and called it collateral damage.

Schwarzenegger infuriated legislators by saying the 85-day budget delay -- also a record -- left him no time to deal with minor legislation. Lawmakers predicted high tension again next year, when the state will face another cash crunch and unresolved fights over healthcare and the water supply.

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) called Schwarzenegger's power play "a total abdication of his responsibility as governor."

"I think he's going to have to decide whether he's going to go back to making bad movies or staying in politics," Torrico said. "He's strongly disliked by Democrats and Republicans alike."

Others say Schwarzenegger finally flexed his gubernatorial muscle and aggressively used his authority as arbiter of the Legislature's proposed changes to California's law book.

"If Schwarzenegger . . . sticks with it," said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento, "the Legislature is going to have to say, 'OK, we've got somebody who's perfectly willing to veto for reasons unrelated to the legislation, and we're going to have to recalibrate our relationship with him.' "

Schwarzenegger told reporters this week that each bill received fair consideration.

"We have normally 30 days to sign bills but because of the delay in the budget, we only had 10 this year," he said. "But I can assure you that every bill got full attention."

He denied that any vetoes were punitive, saying, "I'm not into that at all." But some legislators said the rejections sure felt like punishment.

They included Assemblyman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who proposed to save taxpayers about $5 million a year in legal costs by requiring state agencies and the University of California to write boilerplate language for the more than 1,000 service contracts they sign each year rather than start from scratch each time.