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Arnold’s Pension Plans and Vetoes Pension Plans National business groups have been angry at California’s pension funds. The US chamber of commerce, and the Business Rountable have written critically of CalPERS. That’s not surprising, because CalPERS has been a leader in the corporate reform movement. It sued the NYSE and several specialist firms for engaging in trading manipulations. It also sued World Com and Enron after they collapsed due to financial scandals, and has withheld votes from directors for many businesses including Citigroup’s Sandy Weill. It has divested from Sudan due to the government-backed genocide, and has lobbied the SEC to allow shareholders to nominate directors (which was vigorously opposed by the chamber).

Grover Norquist, who was an economist and chief speechwriter for the US Chamber of Commerce but is now a powerful lobbyist, stated, “Just 115 people control $1 trillion in these funds. We want to take that power and destroy it." So on July 5 of 2005, Arnold proposed privatizing public pension funds Referring to pension privatization, Arnold said, “This is a national battle, like the recall was.” He also said there will be “national money coming in to help us fight the battle.” Arnold even withdrew four of his own nominees to the CalSTRS board after they voted against his plan.  They did so because the funds actuaries calculated that such a move would cost California taxpayers $5.9 billion over the next 10 years. One of the withdrawn nominees, Republican Jim Grey said, “If you have to be in lock step, I guess I shouldn’t be one of his appointees.”

Norquist praised Arnold saying, “The governor of California has provided a useful example of things a governor can do to earn ideal ratings from Americans for Tax Reform.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "A group affiliated with Norquist sent out letters this week to Republican lawmakers across the country urging them to follow Schwarzenegger's lead and call for pension reform in their states."

Although Arnold backed off in 2005, Grover made it clear that they are going after CalPERS again (like how Bush kept trying to privatize Social Security); ”Gov. Schwarzenegger has not backed away from the pressing need for a defined contribution system. He is merely responding to a small uncertainty concerning disability and survivor benefits within the current reform initiative. Gov. Schwarzenegger is slowing down, clarifying any misconceptions with his pension reform plan, and will resume his crucial push to save the retirement security of California state employees in 2006.”

Arnold has even started using Norquist’s rhetoric saying, "Taking money out of the private sector is a no-no because we don't want to feed the monster… We want to feed the private sector, and we want to starve the public sector."

So Arnold cut state funding to colleges—causing tuition to rise. He also proposed to cut funding from programs for the disabled—an action that was protested by the disabled community— and for programs such as Medi-Cal.

Side note: To read more about Grover’s power go here, here, and here. Thirty-five state legislators and 19 congressmen from California have signed Grover’s tax pledge. California signatories include Brian Bilbray, Richard Pombo, Jerry Lewis (chairman of the powerful U.S. House Appropriations Committee and is under investigation), Duke Cunningham, Tom McClintock (running for Lt. Governor), Dick Ackerman (California Senate Minority Leader), Howard Kaloogian (Chairman of Recall Gray Davis Committee), and Jim Gilchrist (founder of the minuteman project).

VETOES SB 698 - Media access to prisoners 1) Existing law allows the media to tour prisons and to conduct random interviews with inmates, but forbids interviews with specifically requested inmates (for more details see CDC regulations, Title 15, Section 3261.5 on page 88 of the document).

The bill Arnold vetoed would have allowed the media to conduct interviews with specifically requested inmates (with prior agreement of the inmate). The bill was authored because “denying prisoners access to the media (and vice-versa) encourages increasing isolation of a prison system where human rights abuses can multiply freely free of public oversight.”

Arnold vetoed it because, as he said, “it is important to avoid treating inmates as celebrities.” It sound similar to how the Bush administration worries about PR moves while human rights abuses occur in their prisons.

Did you know that California is the only state in the nation that allows segregation in its prisons?

The prison system is so bad that in 2005, a judge put the California Department of Corrections under federal receivership.

AB 561-Prison Education Assessment 2) Arnold vetoed a law requiring educational assessments of prisoners and the implementation of programs to satisfy those needs.

SB 1050- Counting write in votes 3) In San Diego, write-in candidate Donna Frye would have become mayor accept that a judge ruled that 5,551 ballots didn’t count because some voters had forgotten to bubble in the oval after they had written in her name. The judge gave the election to Republican Dick Murphy.

The California Legislature passed a bill in response to “Bubblegate.” It would have required all write-in votes to be counted, even if the voter forgets to mark the oval. Arnold vetoed the bill explaining that it “will lead to an unnecessary delay in completing the canvass and certifying election results.”

Debra Bowen, who authored the bill, said, “What ought to be apparent to everyone is that people who take the time to actually write in a candidate’s name deserve to have their votes counted…”

Sadly, in June 2006, San Diego passed a law barring write-in candidates from running in general elections.

SB 469 (Bowen)- Petitioner Disclosure 4) Arnold vetoed another bill authored by Debra Bowen. The measure would have required signature gatherers for propositions to disclose the top five contributors to the effort and to disclose whether or not they are paid to collect signatures.

AB 849 – Gay Marriage 5) Arnold vetoed the first bill passed by a legislature legalizing gay marriage.

AB 2752 – Corporate Election Procedures 6) Arnold vetoed a bill requiring corporations to provide shareholders with a copy of it corporate election procedures upon request. It also would have required corporations to file the procedures with the California Secretary of State.

Donors: While Angelides urged CalPERS and CalSTRS to sue AIG after the pensions lost $400 million because of AIG’s accounting scandal, Arnold received donations of $150,000 from AIG. Although Arnold said, "I don't need to take money from anyone. I have plenty of money myself,” he has already raised $97,694,780. Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens gave Arnold $666,900, Chevron gave $516,800, Vail drilling gave $500,000, and Shell has given $50,000. See Arnold’s top 100 donors here. Oil companies have also been lobbying hard against the Clean Alternative Energy Initiative. Arnold opposes the Clean Energy Initiative. He also said, “I am not in favor of public financing of elections.”