Governor Pushes for Action on His Last-Minute Legislation

SACRAMENTO —  Only days before lawmakers must finish for the year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has handed them a mountain of work on solar power, Indian casinos, frivolous lawsuits, the San Francisco Bay Bridge and prescription drugs from Canada.

Although lawmakers are eager to tackle some of the issues -- and throw in a few more of their own -- Schwarzenegger has shaken up the Capitol in the last few days by threatening vetoes of high-profile legislation, introducing last-minute ideas and asking for significant amendments on other bills.

Schwarzenegger has consistently confounded the Legislature by introducing wide-ranging legislation with short deadlines. The new flurry of activity fits a pattern of pushing lawmakers at the last minute in a direction that many don’t want to go.

The governor’s proposals offer him a way to get bills changed rather than face politically difficult vetoes of legislation that has broad public support. Lawmakers, however, say some of the proposals present them with little time to consider far-reaching policy changes.

The Republican governor once chastised the Legislature for passing bills without proper committee hearings -- but now his last-minute demands have lobbyists and lawmakers frantically working with little public oversight before the Aug. 31 deadline.

“We need to get them a calendar and tell them this is not June or July; it’s Aug. 20,” said environmental lobbyist V. John White, who is working on a major solar power initiative that Schwarzenegger unveiled Friday.

“Everybody should be working together sooner and harder.”

The governor’s office defended the late-breaking policy push by saying the Legislature was itself a month late passing the state budget, which diverted everyone’s attention and put them behind. And his office said some issues -- such as Indian gambling agreements and cost overruns on the Bay Bridge -- emerged only recently, whereas others have been debated in the Legislature for months.

“These are not new ideas,” said Terri Carbaugh, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman. “We’re really weighing in with our position and communicating what that is.... We felt it important to communicate our preference, as opposed to waiting until we got a bill and then vetoing it.”

With some of the issues, Schwarzenegger wants the Legislature to weaken legislation that puts him between business interests -- some of his most generous contributors -- and consumers. Among them is one of the most debated public policy issues of the last several years: allowing people to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada.

Lawmakers and lobbyists said they were particularly surprised by the late demands from Schwarzenegger on that issue and others, because he has complained about the Legislature’s own work habits. He also has suggested that California voters install a part-time Legislature and has looked with disdain at last-minute legislation.

“And he makes fun of us,” said an exasperated state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado).

The governor threatened late Thursday to veto bills that would allow for lower-cost prescription drugs to be purchased from Canada. Schwarzenegger administration health officials instead proposed a program for low-income people “guaranteeing” low-cost drugs, but prohibiting the state from making bulk purchases from Canadian distributors.

Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Los Feliz), author of legislation to create a state website linking consumers to low-cost drug sites in Canada, said Schwarzenegger is “trying to deflect attention away from whether he is going to take a stand with the pharmaceutical industry or with the people.”

“He has never held public office before and he is about to be defined by the actions he takes,” Frommer said, “and I think that is one of the reasons there has been so much activity to try to keep these bills off his desk.”

Frommer said he wrote to the governor in January asking him to attend a summit on drug prices with other governors, but never heard back. Instead, he received a letter from the Schwarzenegger administration Thursday afternoon requesting major amendments -- one hour after the deadline to amend bills.

“We have been trying to engage them. We got one call requesting information in January, and then we never heard from them until 6:30 last night when someone drops a letter off at my office,” Frommer said.

That letter, written by Schwarzenegger’s secretary for health and welfare programs, Kimberly Belshe, said she “shared your concern about the rising cost of prescription drugs” but worried that allowing drugs to enter California from Canada would “expose the state to potential tort liability while doing little to make prescription drugs more affordable for uninsured and under-insured Californians.”

Lawmakers now say they think Schwarzenegger simply wants to veto the current prescription drug legislation but is looking for a substitute on a popular issue. Lawmakers expect to put the bills on Schwarzenegger’s desk despite a possible veto.

“There is certainly mounting pressure on the administration to do something regarding people needing access to affordable prescription drugs,” said state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), author of another Canada drug bill, “and they are trying to find a compromise approach at the 12th hour that none of us can fairly evaluate.”

But Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine defended the governor’s approach, saying that many of the issues being taken up in the final days of the session -- including prescription drugs -- have been thoroughly aired.

“Some of those issues have been around for a long time and have been talked about the entire year,” Ackerman said. “And some of them people have a good feel for. Some of them may be new. Usually, most of the stuff happens in the last couple of weeks. Everything comes to a head then.”

After months of delay, Schwarzenegger only recently began telling lawmakers what he wanted in encouraging Californians to use solar power. On Thursday, several pages of amendments were sent to lawmakers outlining a large-scale shakeup of California’s alternative-energy program.

When the Legislature returns Monday, it will face a Schwarzenegger plan that would offer rebates to install solar panels in existing homes, finance solar systems with new home mortgages, require builders to offer solar energy by 2008 in developments of more than 25 homes, allow people to sell electricity back to the grid, and allow the California Public Utilities Commission in 2007 to raise rates to help meet a goal of 1 million homes with solar power.

Even while environmental lobbyists were absorbing the late amendments, Schwarzenegger issued a statement Friday afternoon that said: “This proposal is about smart, innovative and environmentally friendly technologies ... while cutting energy costs for homeowners for years to come.”

In another complicated action this week, Schwarzenegger announced legal agreements with five Indian tribes that require ratification by the Legislature before it adjourns. One of the agreements would create the state’s largest casino, covering up to 600,000 square feet, to be built along a busy freeway in the Bay Area.

The size of the proposed San Pablo casino shocked even the East Bay congressman who secured legal status for the tribe, allowing it to begin negotiating with Schwarzenegger on its casino plans. Some state lawmakers from the Bay Area also are opposed. Others said they need time to absorb all angles of the legal agreements, called compacts, which require Indian tribes to contribute revenues to the state and local governments.

“The compacts -- I’m not certain they could have been done earlier, but members have real concerns about being asked to approve the compacts last-minute in our session,” said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). “The compacts say the state gets up to 25% of net revenues. And our question is, who is going to say what the net revenues are, and the answer seems to be the tribes.”

Schwarzenegger also announced this week that he wanted the Bay Area to pay for cost overruns on rebuilding a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, now $2.5 billion over budget. He would ask voters to change a previous ballot measure that raised tolls by $1 to pay for road and freeway projects, and instead funnel the money to the Bay Bridge.

That too was met with skepticism from lawmakers and Bay Area officials, some of whom speculated that Schwarzenegger was punishing them for failing to vote in big numbers for the October recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis. For his part, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) rejected Schwarzenegger’s plan but said Bay Area commuters might need to pay $4 to cross the bridge, with the extra $1 toll paying for the cost overruns.

Last week, Schwarzenegger also told environmentalists he wanted a legislative solution to frivolous lawsuits filed against businesses by unscrupulous attorneys. The governor has not supported Proposition 64 on the November ballot, which would hamper the ability of environmental and consumer groups to sue businesses for abuses. Legislation is quickly being drafted, environmentalists said.

Larry Gerston, a political science professor at Cal State San Jose, said Schwarzenegger may be trying to flood the Legislature with demands in its last week in order to sabotage bills before they reach his desk.

“This isn’t like rewriting a script in the middle of a movie,” Gerston said. “This is complicated stuff, and just sort of believing you can wave a wand and say, ‘Jump and jump when I tell you’ doesn’t get you very far.”

Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.

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Governor’s fix-it agenda

With only days left in the legislative session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking lawmakers to revise and pass legislation on:

Prescription drugs: Create a “California Rx” drug discount program, in which the state would leverage purchasing power to lower prices.

Indian gambling: Approve legal agreements with five Indian tribes, including one to build a Las Vegas-size casino in the Bay Area.

Bay Bridge: Require Bay Area commuters to pay for $2.5 billion in cost overruns on a new span.

Solar power: Approve a six-point plan to equip 1 million new and existing California homes with solar power by 2017.

Lawsuit abuse: Find a way to curb frivolous litigation against businesses.

Office of the Governor