Governor Supports Military Veterans, Signs Legislation to Help Veterans Buy Homes

ROGER BRAUTIGAN: Well, thank you all for being here. This is a very important day and it's a great day to be a veteran in California, Governor, I'll say that. And I want to welcome all of you here, on behalf of Secretary Tom Johnson, to our Medal of Honor Hall for this very important signing today of this bill.

This has been a long time coming. For about 15 years this agency and a lot of our Congressional Delegation and veterans organizations and the legislature and the Governor, have tried to get a bill passed that would give us new authority to give home loans to veterans who entered the service after 31 December, 1977. Because of the efforts of the Governor, our entire Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C. and a lot of letter writing campaigns and emails and phone calls, finally this year H.R. 6081 passed and was signed by President Bush into law on June 17th. That gave new life to this very important program that provides home loans to our veterans at very low interest rates.

Now, the follow-on step to that is equally important and thanks to Senator Wyland and Assemblywoman Salas we have a bill that passed the legislature, SB 1572, which authorizes the issuance of $900 million in bond authority so that we can give those loans to the veterans and we appreciate that very much.

Some of the participants here, besides the Governor and Senator Wyland and Assemblymember Salas, are David Norris, who is immediate-past Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Senator McLeod; Alan Lennox, State Commander of the American Legion, newly elected; Tom Splitgerber, who is the President of the California Association of County Vet Service Officers; Floyd Martin, California County Veteran Service Officers Association; Jay Brookman and Jim Lubey, National Guard Association of California; (Inaudible) Greene, National Guard Association of California; Brigadier General Ellsworth, California National Guard. And Governor, we have six members of your National Guard here, four Army and two Air Guard and four of those have been mobilized and deployed to participate in the global war on terror.

So this is a great day and without any further ado, I want to pass this on to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thank you, sir. (Applause)

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you very much, Roger, for the nice introduction and we want to thank you for your great work that you are doing. And I also want to thank Senator Wyland and Assemblywoman Salas for being here today and for the great work that you have done. And, of course, Senator McLeod, thank you very much for being here also. And then David Norris, we want to thank for being here and General Ellsworth from the National Guard, thank you also.

Today I'm very happy to be here, I tell you, to sign this bill, because I've started putting bills into 'weight categories'. There are flyweight bills and bantamweight bills and lightweight bills, but today I'm signing a heavyweight bill, just like we did last week with Senator Perata's bill, which was a heavyweight bill. I like to sign those kinds of bills, because I think that it is about time that we are signing this bill here. The veterans deserve it. They deserve any break and every break that they can get, because for more than two centuries our nation's heroic military personnel have answered the call of duty.

And today we are here to honor their service to America and this is why I'm very happy to sign today SB 1572, to support California's wartime veterans as they return home from their active duty and become civilians. This bill by Senator Wyland and Assemblywoman Salas is a great bill and I want to say thank you to both of you for your great leadership and for working on this bill, because this bill will place, as you have just heard earlier, a $900 million bond on the November ballot to greatly expand the number of veterans that will be eligible for the CalVet home loans. And the beauty of this is, in the proud history of the CalVet program, to have never had really to fund this from general funds, so this is really terrific, because the veterans repay the bond costs through low-interest mortgages.

What is also terrific here is that I urged President Bush and Congress in order to open this program to more veterans. And even though sometimes we criticize them for a lack of action in Washington, but this time I have to say thank you for the great leadership to all of them in Washington and thank you to the President for changing the federal law.

Now, before this bill, those who have served from the end of World War 1 through the Vietnam era could apply for this CalVet program, but no one else after that. So I think that if the voters say yes in November, veterans who risked their lives in places like Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq will be eligible to join the more than 420,000 others who have bought homes with a CalVet loan.

California voters have passed similar measures 26 times before and I'm absolutely confident that our gratitude for our brave men and women in uniform is as strong as ever. We recently celebrated the birth of our nation on July 4th and we all know that the freedom that we enjoy here was made possible, of course, because of our courageous veterans, so this bill is an important part of our obligation to them.

And on behalf of all Californians I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. And I think that, not only as Governor of the state of California, but just as Arnold, I extra want to thank them for the great work they have done in the history of America, because without their great work in defending this country I wouldn't be able to come over here as an immigrant and enjoy all the great opportunities that this country has to offer, so I want to thank them again.

And now I would like to bring out the next speaker, which is Senator Wyland, to say a few words about the bill. Please. (Applause)

SENATOR WYLAND:   I'd like to thank you, Governor, for your leadership on this. The Governor described the importance of getting Congress to act, finally, so that veterans who entered the service later, in the late '70s, have the opportunity to get these loans. I'd like to thank the department for your assistance.

And it was an honor to carry this legislation. As the Governor mentioned, we have thousands and thousands in California of veterans who have given selflessly. They had many other opportunities, buy they've given service to us, for us. Many of them have risked their lives in combat and it seems the very least we can do is to give them the opportunity to get homes at special rates, which don't cost us anything as taxpayers. But in any event, whether it did or not, we need to assist these folks who have assisted us bravely and selflessly. And I want to thank all of them and again to thank you, Governor, for your leadership in getting this accomplished. This is a great day.

And I'd like to now introduce Assemblymember Salas, who has also worked with me. I'm the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs -- she is of the Assembly Committee. Senator McLeod, I also want to recognize your long efforts to help veterans. Assemblymember Salas, please? Thank you. (Applause)

ASSEMBLYMEMBER SALAS: Thank you very much and thank you for allowing me to say a few words on this momentous day today. In signing Senate Bill 1572 the state of California will greatly fortify its efforts to increase home loan funding for qualified veterans. And I'm glad that the legislature had the foresight to quickly pass the Veterans Bond Act of 2008 and your leadership, Senator Wyland, which will authorize the issuance of the $900 million in bonds and a continuation of the CalVet Home Loan Program. As Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, it was my responsibility to work with Senator Wyland to expedite this legislation and if we had not, this program would have run out of money before the people of California would have a chance to act on it. And what better time to put this bond on the ballot, when other credit markets are tightening up? This is not only good for our veterans, who deserve it so much, but it's good for our faltering economy here in California because of the housing crisis.

So I'm just very, very proud to be a part of this. Since 1943 we've approved 26 other Veterans Bond Acts, the most recent being in the year of 2000. So I'm pleased to be here with Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Wyland and all the others for signing this very critical piece of legislation.

And now I'm going to introduce David Norris, who is immediate past Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. David? (Applause)

DAVID NORRIS: Governor, the veterans of this state have waited long enough. I would ask at this time that you would sign that bill on behalf of all California veterans. (Applause)

(BILL SIGNING) (Applause)

QUESTION/ANSWER:

GOVERNOR:           All right. Any questions about this, please? Yes.

QUESTION:              Governor, a question for you today about California's business climate. Today AAA announced that it's pulling out, shutting down its call centers, about 900 jobs leaving, going to Arizona and Oklahoma. Last week Toyota announced it's moving its plant for the Prius to Mississippi. Republicans at the Capitol say this is another example of the bad business climate, additional prospect of $10 billion in new taxes from the Democrats. What are your thoughts about California's business climate and what needs to be done to turn things around?

GOVERNOR:           Well, I think that California has a good business climate, but I think that we can do better. And I think that we are working continuously with the legislators to improve the business climate and also to come up with an economic stimulus package, which is part of the negotiations while we are negotiating the budget.

I think that one can report negative news, but you also can report positive news because like, for instance, Tesla Motors has moved to California. They decided a year ago to move to New Mexico their plant to build the next round of cars. And we have offered them something that was very attractive to them and they felt that California is the perfect place to come. And many other companies are doing that, so there are many companies that are expanding here, that are moving here. We get inquiries all the time about coming here and working with us with green, clean technology and investing in California in our high-tech business, in our biotech and all this.

So, California is a leading state and is a leading place in the world in so many different areas. But we can do much better, especially under those economic circumstances that we're in. We have to adjust quickly. And so I've urged the legislators to do that and Democrats and Republicans are working on that.

Yes, please.

QUESTION:              As you know, we're two weeks into the fiscal year with no budget deal. I'm wondering why there's not been more pressure from your office on the leadership of the Capitol to broker a deal?

GOVERNOR:           Well, we are -- just so you know, I'm very disappointed at the fact that we are now one month past the deadline of having a budget. I think that June 15th is when we should have a budget, because the fiscal year starts on July 1 and we are now one month past that. And I'm disappointed about it, because I think that the legislators have been working on this. They know the numbers and why we don't have a budget -- you know, it just takes so long for them to come to an agreement.

And that's why I urged them throughout the year, from January 10th on, when I made my Budget Proposal, to go and start negotiating that now, because there are a lot of moving parts. It's a very complicated budget, because we were $7 billion short of our revenues and also the spending went up by a considerable amount, so that created a $17 billion deficit.

So those things cannot be done from one week to the next, so I urge them to come in this week with a budget, because the people of California deserve a budget and now is the time to do that. The Kabuki time is over and wasting time is over. It's now the time to deliver a budget.

QUESTION:              Should we keep the two-thirds requirement? Would that make a difference?

GOVERNOR:           I don't think it has to do with the two-thirds requirement. I think it has to do with just the willingness and to have the respect for the deadline. You know, I have made each one of my deadlines since I have come into office, which is January 10th, I have to make my Budget Proposal. I make that deadline every year. It's tough work, but you have to do it because that's the deadline. And the same is with the May Revise. It's always on May 14th, I always hit that deadline.

I think if they start working, as I have suggested already, in February and March on the budget -- because there's only small adjustments when you see the revenues coming in, in April, there could be maybe $1 billion or $2 billion -- so you make those adjustments then. But in the meantime, you still have to deal with the issue, how do we get the extra revenues? Can we make all this in cuts? What are the tradeoffs here? How can we compromise? All of those things ought to be discussed early on, already. And I think that they're waiting for that until the last minute, then there is the whole Kabuki about who blinks first and all this

I think that time is over. I think the time is now there to sit down and say we both have to make sacrifices, we both have to go and compromise, we both have to go beyond our ideology. And the Democrats have to make the cuts necessary that we need and the Republicans have to go and start talking about extra revenues, because that's what it needs this year.

QUESTION:              (Inaudible) that is trying to ban the use of trans fats in restaurants and bakeries? Are you in favor, are you in disagreement?

GOVERNOR:           I have not seen the legislation yet and I never comment on anything that I have not dealt with or have signed or vetoed. So I will let you know. As soon as it gets to my desk I can talk about that, okay? Yeah, please.

QUESTION:              Governor, on the water issue, if I may, please? Senator Perata has suggested that you're holding his $900 million for the Delta hostage. Is this a philosophical debate, or is there something in there that you don't like? Is there something that you want to see in there, or what's the hang-up?

GOVERNOR:           Well, first of all, as you know, that we have been talking about -- since we have been saying that we need to rebuild California, we always made water part of the infrastructure to rebuild California. California has now for the second year in a row a drought. We need water very badly. We have water for maybe the next 5, 10 years, but not for the next 40, 50 years. I think we want to guarantee the California people reliable and safe water in 50 year also from now.

And this is why we need to start building now, because it takes 15-20 years to build a water delivery system, to fix the Delta, to fix its ecosystem, to build below-the-ground and above-the-ground water storage. All of those things take a long time. And this is why I've urged Senator Perata and the legislative leaders to get together and to come up with a water package and make that part of rebuilding California, something that is very badly needed. And so, therefore, he has had all the time in the world to make that decision and they haven't made that decision yet. So we want to have a comprehensive package there which includes the $800 million for water.

QUESTION:             Is this all about the dams?

GOVERNOR:           It is for some people. That is a holdup, to have above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage. For other people it's another issue. But I think that there's a way of getting together. And I urge the Democrats and Republicans to come together and not to drag it out, because in the end we've got to show the people of California that something was accomplished this year, because so far it has been a vacuum.

And I think that it is very important that the legislators, before they go and go on vacation, they ask themselves, do we really deserve a vacation? You know, have we accomplished the things that are out there? We have health care reform that we have been talking about. Education reform we have been talking about. Water, to build the water storage and to come up with a good, comprehensive water package.

Senator Feinstein and I have been in sync on that and we have been asking to just show that it is not a political issue, Democrats versus Republicans. No, we both -- she as a Democrat and me as a Republican, we say that we need a comprehensive water package that includes also water storage.

QUESTION:             (Inaudible) adjourned this week.

GOVERNOR:           Say again?

QUESTION:              On the point of you saying do lawmakers deserve a vacation, they have adjourned for the week, they're not even in Sacramento holding session. What do you think about that? Should they be here in session?

GOVERNOR:           Well, I think that the people that are making decisions are here and the people that are negotiating the budget are here, the people that have the power to make the decisions on the water are here. So I think that they don't need to have everyone sit around and wait, because it's the legislative leaders that are making those decisions and are part of those negotiations. But I think it is very important that they move on and not just keep kicking that can down the alley. I think now is the time.

I think the people of California really deserve the best service and I think that in order to get that water done, that's something that the people want. You look at the poll numbers, more than 70 percent of the people think that we should get our water deal. More than 70 percent of the people think we should redo our health care system, that it's a broken health care system. So what are they waiting for? We need to get going.

And people are disappointed about the budget and then they wonder why their poll numbers are down. Because you've got to deliver. I mean, that's what we have said. And I can only get the horse to the water, but I can't make it drink. I've been pushing them and said, "Come in with a deal, let's do it now. Forget the song and dance and the Kabuki and all of those kinds of things. Let's do it." So we are pushing, trust me.

Okay, one more question. Yeah, please.

QUESTION:              The Board of Parole Hearings is considering compassionate release for Susan Atkins, the Manson Family murderer. She --

GOVERNOR:           I don't believe in that. You know, I think that they have to stay in. They have to serve their time. And I think that it's something, if someone is about to pass away. But those kind of crimes are just so unbelievable that I'm not for that compassionate release in that case.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.