Posted on 09/28/2006 9:48:45 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - After signing more than 500 bills and vetoing 29, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to finish the bill-signing season with a flurry: He has 619 bills to consider before Saturday's constitutional deadline.
Among them is legislation that would give mothers 30 days -- rather than the current 72 hours -- to deliver their newborn babies to "safe surrender" locations without facing abandonment charges. Another bill before the governor would allow domestic partners to file joint tax returns.
The governor rarely signals his intent on bills -- though, on some, like the global emissions bill he signed Wednesday, AB 32, his intent is clear. So, legislators and advocates are often left wondering about the fate of their measures up to the final moment.
"I have no idea what the governor is going to do," said Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, the author of the "safe haven" bill, AB 1873. "All I know is we got 70 of 80 votes in the Assembly, so it was bipartisan. I just don't think three days is enough for a mother to assess the gravity of raising a child."
Torrico has opposition from an unlikely source: Debi Faris-Cifelli, the driving force behind California's 2001 safe haven law, who recently wrote a letter urging Schwarzenegger to keep the current law intact.
The law, which inspired similar legislation in 45 other states, has saved 153 lives since 2001, said Faris-Cifelli, who established the Garden of Angels Cemetery in Riverside County.
"If you have a mother who is ambivalent about having a baby in the first place and she has 30 days to make a decision," Faris-Cifelli said, "I'm concerned about the neglect or abuse that could happen to the newborn."
The premise of the 72-hour law was to reach that mother who hadn't told anybody about her secret pregnancy, had the baby alone, and wants to hide her secret by abandoning the baby, she said.
"With the 30 days, that's a mother who is going to the hospital, other people know she's had a child, and if she's struggling with her decision, hopefully she'll have support at home," Faris-Cifelli said. "This changes the dynamics of the law."
Torrico said he doesn't understand the logic.
"I'd err on giving mothers more time than less," he said. "We've had psychologists and psychiatrists, the American Medical Association and the college of OB-GYN all testify that for post-partum depression, 30 days makes sense. And all definitions of newborns are from 28 to 30 days."
Schwarzenegger shouldn't have the same difficulty in signing the bill to allow domestic partners to file jointly on their tax returns, SB 1827, supporters said, given his support for domestic partners.
The legislation would apply to 38,000 registered domestic partners, and could be worth $2,500 for a family of four that has a stay-at-home parent.
"We have confidence the governor's going to sign this," said Geoff Kors, executive director for Equality California. "He's said repeatedly he supports domestic partners, that they deserve all rights married couples have."
But Schwarzenegger also has to be careful not to irritate his conservative base by signing legislation they consider "anti-family."
"It equates a wife with a homosexual, which makes no sense at all," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families.
"It makes California taxpayers pay nearly $10 million per year to subsidize gay marriages in yet another part of the law. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who says he believes marriage is for a man and a woman, should veto SB 1827 to show he's different from Phil Angelides, who supports this bad bill and has vowed to sign 'gay marriages' into law if he becomes governor."
The author, Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, said allowing joint filing is a logical last step in recognizing domestic partners. Since 1999, the state has expanded rights for domestic partners: It has created a domestic partner registry and allowed adoption, inheritance of property, child support, joint responsibility for debts and making medical decisions for a partner.
"We just believe domestic partners ought to be recognized fully," Migden said, "and this will be important to people's pocketbook."
Thank goodness it will be over soon.
09/28/06
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation Benefiting Farmworkers
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