Deciding Bills Not a Coal Mine, but No Picnic, Either

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was sitting in his smoking tent one afternoon last April, mocking old Capitol hands who had warned him about the drudgery of nonstop bill-signing in September. To the contrary, the new governor insisted, he was looking forward to the chore.

“I hear,” he said, slowly drawing out the words in a deep, ominous tone, “ ‘Wait until all these bills have to be signed. There’ll be 1,400 bills you will sign -- just sitting there, day and night, just signing bills.’ ”

He laughed. “Oh, now, I’m supposed to be scared? Signing bills? Imagine the people working in the coal mines somewhere for a few dollars every day. I’ve seen it in South Africa ... people struggling and really working. Now that is the pits.

“But to be sitting at your desk and to sign a bill -- where’s the suffering? I’m looking forward to all the different bills because that’s what is so interesting.”

Well, it’s now the last week of a two-year legislative session, and a boatload of newly passed bills is about to inundate the governor’s Capitol corner office and his patio smoking tent.

Schwarzenegger must sign or veto hundreds of measures by Sept. 30. By the time he’s through, we’ll know more about this governor, and he’ll know more about governing.

We’ll see how pro-business Schwarzenegger is -- or, looked at another way, how pro-special interest. He may lament the plight of African coal miners, for example, but he’s still expected to veto a bill that would raise California’s minimum wage to $7.75, highest in the nation. The governor thinks such a wage hike would hurt the economy and, anyway, Democrats are just trying to embarrass him.

This chaotic final week of the legislative session will test Schwarzenegger’s cooling relationship with lawmakers, whose awe of the celebrity governor has been shifting toward ambivalence, if not antagonism.

One recent reason: Two weeks ago, the Schwarzenegger administration threatened to veto last-minute bills that didn’t receive proper public scrutiny. Then last week, the governor proposed his own stack of last-minute legislation involving Indian casinos, Bay Area bridge retrofitting, solar power, prescription drugs....

It smacked of hypocrisy.

Schwarzenegger and we will learn how effective he is in coaxing the Legislature on issues that don’t lend themselves to shopping mall rallies and public pressure -- issues like his proposed gargantuan, urban gambling casino, or his effort to block Californians from obtaining cheaper Canadian drugs.

You’ve got to wonder what Schwarzenegger was smoking while he negotiated with the Indians on that Hummer of all casinos. He agreed to plop a 5,000-slot gambling joint -- much bigger than anything in Vegas -- into a congested San Francisco Bay Area freeway corridor, in exchange for a 25% state cut, perhaps $150 million annually.

The governor’s position is that he was obligated by federal law to negotiate in good faith with the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians. But he wasn’t obligated to give them the biggest casino in the West, just off I-80 in blue-collar San Pablo. And the Legislature definitely feels no obligation to ratify the compact.

The Capitol shock has turned to hisses and boos -- from both sides of the continent. “Totally unacceptable ... unconscionable,” U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein declared Saturday.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), who represents San Pablo: “This appears to be the new economic strategy for California, and it’s pathetic. Instead of being the state with the best education system and the greatest infrastructure, where we are on the cutting edge of innovation, the answer to our budget shortfall is to get a casino. That’s not economic strategy. That’s desperation.”

Senate Leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) has demanded that the casino size be cut in half. So Schwarzenegger is headed for only half a win at best.

Four smaller, rural casinos simultaneously negotiated by Schwarzenegger have drawn much less heat. But even there, some Republicans are upset because the governor allowed union organizing.

Schwarzenegger has given GOP lawmakers and himself political cover to side with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and oppose four bills that would help Californians buy drugs from Canada. He did this by proposing a late-hour alternative to create a drug discount program for the low-income uninsured.

“It’s clearly an attempt to derail our bills,” says an author, Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D-Los Feliz). “We’ll put them on the governor’s desk and see what happens.”

Expect a veto.

Schwarzenegger last week drove a wedge between Southern California and the Bay Area by declaring that the state won’t pay $2.3 billion in cost overruns for earthquake-proofing the Bay Bridge. He’s seeking a November ballot measure that would ask local residents to commit bridge tolls to the project.

Costs rose because Bay Area planners insisted on an eye-catching bridge. “Do we want to pay so the Bay Area can deal with Golden Gate envy?” asks Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Murray (D-Culver City). His answer -- and the governor’s -- is no.

Schwarzenegger also must deal again with a bill to permit driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. It’s expected to pass and be vetoed -- pleasing the governor’s GOP base, but further alienating liberals and Latinos.

As he digs into all these bills, we’ll learn whether Schwarzenegger has gotten any better at multi-tasking.

He may learn that although continually making tough decisions on bills -- and making enemies -- isn’t like coal-mining, it’s still the pits.