Schwarzenegger's "California Values" Fly in the Face of Public Opinion

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In a noisy Capitol rotunda on Friday, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the state budget with a sign plastered to his desk for the TV cameras that read: "California Priorities, California Values." Minutes later, when the Department of Finance issued the Governor's blue pencil vetoes to pander to Senate Republicans, it was clear that Schwarzenegger's values are wildly out of sync with those of most Californians.
 
Cases in point:

• The Governor vetoed $55 million for services to homeless adults with serious mental illnesses -- despite overwhelming support for Sen. Steinberg's mental health initiative in 2004, and pleas from big city mayors for the state to do more to combat homelessness.
• The Governor effectively eliminated the affordable discount prescription drug program he negotiated with Democrats last year. The program was so popular, that Schwarzenegger touted it on the campaign trail last year as one of his accomplishments.
• Schwarzenegger also slashed $9.8 million from an outreach program to help enroll children of low-income families in state-run health insurance programs. This comes despite polls that show more than 80 percent of Californians favor coverage all of California's kids.
• Schwarzenegger also axed $30 million in grants to local governments to soften the impacts from nearby Indian casinos. The move comes in the wake of Schwaraznegger's promotion of the largest expansion of California history, a move opposed by the majority of Californians.

Sacramento Senator Darrell Steinberg had this to say of the mental heath cuts to the San Francisco Chronicle: "This is a nationally recognized program that gets mentally ill homeless adults off the streets, and to throw that under the bus is unconscionable."

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Photo courtesy Feeding Pets of the Homeless.