Governor vetoes a few notable pieces of legislation on last weekend

by Brian Leubitz

When you have both the legislative and executive branches controlled by the same party, you would expect a pretty high percentage of legislation signed. However, while the odds have been better for Democratic legislation under Gov. Brown than the previous administration, some Democratic legislators have been a little frustrated with Gov. Brown’s vetoes of major legislation.  With that being said, the two year session that ended last year ended up with the Governor vetoing about 13% of the 1,866 bills that reached his desk.

That’s about half as many as Schwarzenegger, but his rate went down this year to 10.7%, something of a record. And some of those he signed are pretty important:

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday wrapped up action on bills for the year by approving a measure aimed a protecting against false confessions by minors in homicide cases and giving some non-violent felons the ability to have their records expunged.

In all, Brown acted by Sunday’s deadline on 896 regular-session bills sent him by the Legislature this year, down from the nearly 1,000 bills that landed on his desk last year. He vetoed 10.7% of the bills, the lowest rejection rate for any of his three years this term. (LA Times)

He also acted on a few other bills of note. He signed Sen. Hancock’s SB 54, which had caused a dustup in the labor community (including a “Save Our Jobs” campaign), however he vetoed some of the so-called “LIFE Act” gun safety legislative package. Needless to say, many progressives are disappointed.

Their key issue: the veto of SB 374 by Senator Darrell Steinberg,” which conservatives called called “draconian” – but which progressives supported for its ban on future sales of most semi-automatic rifles.

We just talked to Paul Song, head of the progressive Courage Campaign, who told us that his group was “devastated” by Brown’s actions.

“We expected that in a solidly blue state, where he doesn’t have to worry about recall, he would have shown a little bit of courage or backbone – and set an example for the test of the country. He let us down,” Song said. “And just like the prison expansion (issue), he’s been to the right of a lot of Republican governors.” (SF Gate)

He did sign some of the package, including banning kits that enable magazines to hold more than 10 bullets, but the vetoes gathered more attention. While this does move the ball forward, ultimately we need federal gun legislation in order to really be effective.

You can find more information on the status of specific bills at the Legislature’s bill information site.