SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed an $85 billion budget plan approved by lawmakers to close California’s monumental deficit, using his veto power to impose nearly $500 million in additional cuts.
The new reductions will affect child welfare and children’s health care, the elderly, state parks, and AIDS treatment and prevention beyond the dramatic cuts that were part of the deal Schwarzenegger negotiated with legislative leaders.
The state Senate’s Democratic leader disputed the Republican governor’s authority to make those cuts, but Schwarzenegger’s aides said they were proper, and the governor said they were necessary.
“This has been a very tough budget, probably the toughest since I have been in office here in Sacramento,” the governor said. “This budget is kind of like the good, the bad and the ugly.”
The good, Schwarzenegger said, was that the plan would not raise taxes and included changes he said would make government more efficient, such as reorganizing and abolishing some boards and commissions.
The bad was the deep cuts to state programs that would touch millions of Californians, particularly its most vulnerable citizens, he said.
The ugly, Schwarzenegger added, was the further reductions he made because lawmakers left town after failing to close the state’s deficit fully.
Even as he signed the plan, Schwarzenegger warned that the state’s troubles were not over. Finance officials have predicted future deficits, and the governor said he was ready, “if our revenues drop further, to make the necessary cuts and live within our means.”
The extra cuts he made Tuesday — totaling $489 million — did away with nearly $80 million that would have paid workers who help abused and neglected children; $50 million from Healthy Families, which provides health care to children in low-income families; $50 million from services for developmentally delayed children younger than 3; $16 million from domestic-violence programs; $6.3 million from services for the elderly; and $6.2 million from parks. The parks reduction could result in the closure of 100, rather than 50, state parks.
Also, Schwarzenegger’s vetoes effectively gutted a program that provided local governments with funding to encourage landowners to preserve open space and agricultural land use.
