The California State Budget for 2008-2009 was established by a set of 21 bills approved by the state legislature and signed by the Governor. With most legislation the Governor has just three choices; he can sign the bill, he can veto it, or he can let it become law without his signature.
However, with budget bills the governor can reduce spending items in the bills or even totally eliminate some items and then sign the bill into law with his changes.
A link, which you will find below, will take you to a table containing a list of all the bills related to the passage of the 2008-2009 state budget. The bills are listed in numerical order. The main budget bills are AB 1781 and AB 88. The remaining bills on the list are so called "trailer bills". The trailer bills relate to specific program areas in the activities of state government.
Each bill listing has three columns:
- Column 1 shows the bill number and author.
- Column 2 gives a bill title (in bold print) and a summary of what the bill does. The bill title indicates the government programs covered by the bill.
- Column 3 tells the status of the bill. All bills listed have been sent to the Governor. If the word "Chaptered" appears in the third column, it means the Governor has signed the bill. More bills will be marked chaptered as the bill signing process is completed.
You may see a copy of the complete bill by clicking on the bill number in the left column of the table. Then click on the letters "html" on the top line under the title "Bill Text".
If a bill has been signed by the Governor you may see a signing message issued by the Governor when he signed the bill. To do this click on the bill number and then scroll to the bottom of the page. Under the title "Governor's Message" you will see a detailed description of any reductions or eliminations the Governor has made to the spending appropriations made by the bill. YOu can read this message to see what funding was given to some program of particular importance to you.
Note: the process is a little slow. It might take a few days for all the bills to be marked Chaptered and for the Governor's message to appear. If you like, check back on another day to see if more bills have been chaptered and more messages have been added.
To see the table of budget bills click .
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