Senator Leno Responds to Governor's Line-Item Vetoes

"It's bad faith on the part of Republican legislators to negotiate a set of budget solutions and then refuse to vote for one of the largest ones, worth over a billion dollars. The funding gap this created opened the door for the Governor to line-item veto critical programs that Democrats worked hard to preserve. Today's cuts will further devastate our already reeling health and human services safety net, and cause even more unnecessary harm to our most vulnerable populations. We believe there are strong legal grounds to fight many of these vetoes. California's constitution empowers the Governor to veto or reduce appropriations, but our budget agreement doesn't make new appropriations, it makes spending reductions. In the end, my colleagues and I will fight these devastating cuts with everything we have."

Read More