California must have reserve, says Governor.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is defending his use of vetoes to help close California’s budget deficit gap and to create a half-billion dollar reserve.

His last minute vetoes shaved $489 million from the final budget, and in his weekly radio addressed the Governor said that he stands by his decision.

“I promised the people of California to stand firm for a balanced budget that solves the entire deficit and includes a prudent reserve,” he said.  “The vetoes, along with some other spending adjustments closed the entire deficit and left our state with a $500 million dollar reserve.

With the move, Schwarzenegger was able to finally create a state financial reserve, which he had been a staunch advocate for. He claims that there are two main reasons for creating such a reserve.

“We all know that California is prone to big natural disasters,” he said. “We have earthquakes, floods, mudslides and we have a fire season that goes all year round. We must have extra resources available to respond to those emergencies.

Additionally, Governor Schwarzenegger said that the economy provides too many uncertainties for the state.

“No one is quite sure when the economy will fully recover, so we must have additional money set aside in case our revenues continue to drop.”

After praising the bipartisan work of legislators, Governor Schwarzenegger said they came up short.

“This truly was a ‘get out of town’ budget,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “We can deal with the rest of the problems later in August or September. But in the meantime they left us with an unbalanced budget. This is unacceptable to me.”

Now, with much work left to do, our Governor plans to move forward.

“The best thing that we can do now is go to work, to create more jobs and to stimulate our economy.”

The state legislature will reconvene from summer break on August 17.

To hear the Governor’s radio address, click here.