SACRAMENTO, CA - "I'm going to veto a lot of bills over the next 30 days. I have to say to some: 'Fasten your seat belt. It's going to be a rough ride,'" said Gov. Brown on Wednesday.
In his first veto since publicly telling lawmakers this week many of their 600 bills may be headed to the reject pile, the governor suggests he'll be heavily weighing the impact the proposals will have on the state's finances.
Brown vetoed a measure that would have altered the mechanism for automatic emergency budget cuts if tax revenues fall below projection.
He said since the budget contains no gimmicks for the first time in years, "Why would we undermine the plan that his earned widespread respect and helped stabilize California's finances?"
Education would take the brunt of those emergency cuts at the end of the year, but the governor doesn't seem willing to bend on the budget.
"He's not been willing to change the trigger," said Dennis Meyers with the California Association of School Business Officials. "We've asked him for specific changes that need to be made. And as we said, the sooner the better."
The governor does a lot of his own veto messages ... there's a picture from Twitter, confirmed by the governor's office, with Brown's hand-written changes to staff.
On the flipside, the governor signed two bills that extended taxes on the healthcare industry which stabilize parts of the state budget.
Among the programs saved is Healthy Families, meaning health coverage for 900,000 California children will continue.
"Without this measure hundreds of thousands of families would have lost their affordable health coverage," said Nicette Short of Children Now. "We're very relieved and we know the families will be as well."
Nannette Miranda
ABC7
ABC7