Gov. Attends Austrian Leader’s Rites

For the first time since being elected governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to his native country this weekend, leaving behind present budget troubles for a brief, somber glimpse of his past.

Schwarzenegger arrived in Vienna on Saturday morning from Los Angeles to lead a delegation sent by President Bush to the state funeral of Austrian President Thomas Klestil, a friend of the governor’s since Klestil’s service as Austrian consul general in Los Angeles in 1969.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry treated Schwarzenegger like a president. During the funeral Mass for Klestil, Schwarzenegger was seated with heads of state, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden. Austrians watching the funeral on national TV were treated to multiple camera shots of a somber-looking Schwarzenegger seated behind a weary Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic.

In the evening, Schwarzenegger arrived here in Graz, Austria’s second largest city, where he said he planned to spend the evening reminiscing privately with old friends.

“Austria has always treated me like a head of state,” Schwarzenegger said in a short interview with The Times in a hotel lobby Saturday night.

“It makes no difference to me if I come back as a bodybuilder or if I come back as a business guy or as an actor or as someone who is governor of California. It’s always a great pleasure to come back to my home country.”

Even with California’s stalled budget talks half a world away, Schwarzenegger did not leave behind the battle over the California state budget, still unfinished 11 days past the start of a new fiscal year.

In the interview, the governor accused legislators of “a certain arrogance” in trying to block his deal with local governments to protect more of their funds in future years.

“No one ... that I know wants to have someone say, ‘Hey, we have the right to withhold money from you,’ ” Schwarzenegger said of the state’s practice of holding onto tax dollars that otherwise would go back to localities. “So I think on the most basic level it just doesn’t work. It’s not right. There is a certain arrogance among the legislators, certain kinds of legislators in Sacramento, that they feel like they can run the cities and the counties better” than the cities and counties themselves do.

The governor said he had a question for union leaders who oppose his local government deal. “I want to ask the union leaders if they would appreciate if we go to their workers and say, ‘Do you mind if we steal money from you every year?’ ” Schwarzenegger said. He pledged to fight on the issue “all the way to the end.”

Back in Sacramento, some state legislators and interest groups were preparing to continue their fight with the governor on the issue. Legislators said a prolonged fight could put government services in limbo. Already, some state workers will not get their paychecks next week and many vendors are not being reimbursed.

Democrats want more flexibility to borrow from cities and counties in a fiscal emergency. Some powerful groups are standing with them. The schools lobby and the state’s Service Employees International Union -- two of the most powerful groups in the Capitol -- are pressuring lawmakers not to vote for the latest compromise proposal Schwarzenegger’s administration and the local governments put on the table. They warn it protects funding for local governments at the cost of schools and social services.

“We are as involved in this and as interested in this as anybody can be,” said Allen Davenport, director of government relations for the 500,000-member California chapter of the SEIU, the largest union in the state.

Schwarzenegger’s comments on the budget came near the end of an exhausting day that began in Vienna, where Schwarzenegger drew crowds as he stopped in a pastry shop and walked through the streets. He attended two private receptions with foreign leaders, and also made an unannounced visit to see Simon Wiesenthal, 95, aides said. Schwarzenegger is a supporter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. At Schwarzenegger’s request, the center had investigated his deceased father, and concluded that Gustav Schwarzenegger was a member of the Nazi “brownshirts,” but did not commit war crimes.

Klestil’s funeral took place inside St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a 12th century church restored gloriously after suffering extensive damage in World War II.

“We were very good friends,” Schwarzenegger said of Klestil to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who led the service, outside the cathedral. He then urged the cardinal “to come see us in California.”

In the afternoon, Schwarzenegger joined other world leaders for the nationally televised entombment of Klestil in Vienna’s Central Cemetery. The cemetery is famous in America as the setting for the final scene of the 1949 film classic “The Third Man”; Orson Welles’ character, Harry Lime, is buried there.

From Vienna, Schwarzenegger headed south to Graz, which is just a few miles from his hometown, Thal, a rural community in which Gustav Schwarzenegger served as police chief.

When in Graz, Schwarzenegger makes his home at the Grand Hotel Wiesler, across the street from the rapid-flowing River Mur. Schwarzenegger is a beloved native son in Graz (pop. 237,000), which, with its rural outskirts and light rail running down the middle of some streets, would feel familiar to residents of Sacramento. But while his visit to Vienna for the funeral was front page news, his side trip here Saturday night got little public notice.

“Arnold’s coming is great,” said Gerhard Faching, a Graz cabby who was one of the few plugged into the news. “He is like family here, here all the time. It’s not a big deal.”

Aides to the governor said he had tried to keep the visit to Graz low-key.

After a meeting this morning with the current and a former governor of the province of Styria, of which Graz is capital, Schwarzenegger will fly back to Los Angeles, arriving later in the day. He plans to be in Sacramento by Monday morning, working on the budget.

Times staff writer Evan Halper contributed to this report.