Well, we’ve had threads bashing Ahnuld’s speech at the convention. We’ve had threads poking fun at amending the constitution so he can run for president.
But he’s been governor for a while. Anyone know how he’s doing at his job?
Arnie’s doing a pretty good job, until just recently he did not seem beholden to special interest. Just recently it’s been reported that he’s taking money from the drug company lobbyists, coincidentally or not, there is a bill on his desk allowing Californians to legally buy drugs form Canada. He’s idicated he may not sign it, prefering to work with the drug companies for more free meds for the poor, we’ll have to wait and see whether that costs him or not.
His plan to ge the state out of debt, more or less was the same idea of his predeccesors :shrug:. I did like his selling off of a lot of state property that had just been sitting around in warehouses. There was a huge auction and some stuff even appeared on E-Bay. He’s also trying to sell off state properties we’re not using, and own for reasons both vague and idiotic. Another good idea.
My only real problem with the Governor is his continual threats to place on the ballot any ideal which he can’t seem to get past the legislature. Not a big deal in and of itself, but as a Californian, I’m just shy of the Ballot Initiative. Just about every Bad Law, that’s made its way to actual law got there through Ballot Initiatives.
Voted no on the recall and for McClintock of the recall went forward.
Arnold in, IMO, is ineffective as anyone would be in his situation.
He promised to open the books and reduce spending during his campaign, but anyone familiar with the constitution of CA knows that this was BS. We are locked into spending by law.
So, one of the first things he did after getting the vote was to state “There is a lot of federal money” to solve our budget crunch. After that fell through, he went forth with the bond measures to get us out of short term debt, but just placed the burden on future Californians. In reality, I don’t think he had much of a choice, but he could have at least made it look like he was working towards it.
He also was against the driver’s license for illegals during his campaign, but now only vetoed the bill because it did not address border security well enough.
Just recently, he signed a bill outlawing 50 caliber BMG weapons in ammunition. This was a big no no for me, being that no crimes have ever been committed with 50 BMG, and the only reason given was “Terrorist could use them” (gun owner here)
He also signed a law to make it illegal to have sex with a dead body. I wish those damn republicans would stay out of my bedroom 
He also just removed the tax-exempt status of teachers buying items for their classes. Which is another WTF on my part being that our educational system is a tad strapped, and this could just make it worse.
All in all, I think he is just another Californian democratic governor.
I didn’t vote for him in the recall, but I have to say, I still like him better than Gray Davis.
Damn I hadn’t heard about that. If I had my post would have had an entirely different tone. i’m a parent with kids in a school district just taken over by the state becuse their broke. It’s a common practice here.
If I may ask, what items were teachers buying for their classes?
Books. I used to work in a bookstore, and it was very common for teachers to come in and buy books for their classes out of their own pockets because the budget crunches. That was 10 years ago.
I also assume that items in your everyday education toy store are also commonly bought by teachers for classrooms.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/taxes/story/10480839p-11400185c.html
It looks like it the California Teacher Retention Tax Credit was put in place by Davis and the legislators voted it down and Arnold signed it.
From here: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/insider/archives/001080.html
Hill is Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill.
Wow, CA teachers sink $190 million into education from their own pockets.
Pencils. Paper. Tissues. Art Supplies beyond the bare-bones couldn’t-support a class-half-this-size-appreciably amount the district gives them.
Basically, anything and sometimes everything needed to run a classroom.
Wow, I suppose it could be a whole other thread, but what the heck is all that lotto money going towards?
Is the Governator doing anything to increase funding for schools, so teachers don’t have to spend their own money?
I knew someone would ask this. I meant to put the answer on a notepad so I wouldn’t have to type this later. Anyway the basics is this: School funding is mandated however it’s not mandated to come out of the General Fund. It’s just a percentage of the gerneral fund, and loosely based on an avergage of per capita spending on education. Basically what this means is that the State can take money from the General Fund and replace it with money from the Lotto receipts. From the outside it looks like the schools are receiving more money but in reality the schools loose, as the money from the general fund went somewhere else. I.e, the state has spent the money for educatiom but it doesn’t look like it as the state can provide “more” funding from the Lotto, in reality only making up what they’ve spent.
Coincidentally, this article (registration required) made the front page of the Los Angeles Times Saturday morning:
As far as I know, Arnold hasn’t come through on a single one of his many grandiose campaign promises. I’ll give him one thing - he does seem to by trying. At least he’s not lazy.
Oops, I forgot. He did roll back the vehicle license fee increase as he promised. So that’s one.