Schwarzenegger Restores Funding For Domestic Violence Shelters

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Good afternoon, everybody. Wow, I don't know how you all fit in here. (Laughter.) It's amazing. Really crowded.

But anyway, it's - good afternoon, everybody. And I just want to say thank you very much to the various different people that are behind me here. Beth Hassett, the Executive Director of WEAVE; and Assemblyman Jones; and Julie Nauman, the Executive Officer of Victims Compensation Government Claims Board; and Secretary Matt Cate; and Secretary Matt Bettenhausen; and then Sheriff McGinness; and the list goes on and on. So I want to say thank you to all of them.

And today, of course, we're here to celebrate the restoration of funding for California's domestic violence shelters. This is great news for every Californian whose life has been devastated by violence in the home. This is a problem, a serious problem and it's widespread and that is why I so saddened to see the shelters, which are crucial to domestic violence victims, caught up in Sacramento's politics this last summer.

Photo of Gov. Schwarzenegger Signing Legislation to Restore Funding to State's Domestic Violence Shelters. Photo by Justin Short, Office of the Governor

When the legislature sent me a budget that was not balanced - as a matter of fact, it was in the hole by $165 million - I was forced to make very, very difficult decisions and cuts that, for instance, in programs like domestic violence shelters, so that we could continue to provide basic state services like firefighting, some of the state's 94 shelters had to close but today we celebrate that they can reopen again.

We have a solution that we're celebrating in signing SB X313, which is authored by Senator Elaine Alquist and we want to thank her for this great work and it will provide $16.3 million from a special gas tax fund. And of course it has to be repaid. I want to congratulate Senator Alquist for the great work and also Senator Leland Yee who although authored a similar bill. I also want to take this opportunity and thank Senator Steinberg for his great leadership because he felt very passionate about getting this money restored.

And I also want to congratulate the many groups that put victims first and that came together to find a creative solution to keep those shelters open and some of those groups are behind me right now. I want to thank them. Victims - Crime Victims Action Alliance; the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault; Crime Victims United; Parents of Murdered Children; the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence; Victim Witness; then the Department of Corrections; my office and my staff; the Attorney General's office; Cal EMA; and the Victims Compensation Fund. I want to thank them all.

And as you can see, where there's a will there's a way. We're very happy that we could turn some of those things around, like for instance, Healthy Families Program that we funded again and also for instance, the legislators came came together and found - we found creative ways together to keep the parks open and now with the domestic violence centers, to keep them open, I think this is all great news. So I want to again thank everyone that participated.

And I want to have Senator Steinberg come out and just say a few words. Thank you.

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Thank you, governor.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Absolutely.

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Thank you very much, governor, for not only being here today but for working with us to help restore this funding and for your signature today and for making this issue a priority.

I also want to thank Senator Alquist, my colleague; Senator Leland Yee, who worked very hard on this measure; Senators Kehoe and Corbett; Assemblymember Jones; and other members of the Assembly for their leadership as well.

You know, there are many things that we do in state government that don't rise to the level of life and death. This issue is about life and death. In 2007, there were over 118 domestic violence-related deaths. And in 2008 there 119 deaths. Without this action today, six shelters in California's communities would be forced to continue to remain closed. And by the legislature's action and the governor's signature we are going to prevent more people from suffering and dying needlessly. And so it's as simple as that. And I appreciate not only the restoration but the fact that, you know, we sometimes get criticized a little bit for the way we budget. But thank God we were able to find a special find and borrow the money on a one time basis to tide us over until we can figure out permanent funding, because the lives that are at stake are much more important than anything else.

Thank you.

Beth Hassett, who is my constituent, who is the Executive Director of Women Escaping a Violent Environment, otherwise known as as WEAVE. Welcome.

MS. HASSETT:

Thank you, Senator Steinberg.

At four o'clock in the morning on Sunday night, this last Sunday, our crisis line rang and the advocate who answered it drove to the hospital to pick up a victim of domestic violence. Earlier that evening, her partner had smashed her head on a sidewalk in front of their house so hard that she needed to be taken in an ambulance to the hospital. He was arrested, her young children were taken into custody by CPS so she could get the help that she needed. Her kids were returned to her the next day and they're all in our safe house trying to rebuild their lives in the safety of a confidential shelter.

This is just one victim's story. This story is repeated time and again every day all over the state of California. We take calls and we bring people into our shelter at all hours of the night and all through the day and unfortunately we do not have the funding we need to meet the demand of all of the victims who come to us.

Today we're celebrating the signing of Senate Bill X313 and the restoration of funds to help 94 agencies in this state who will help thousands of people in the coming year.

And these victims are women and men and children in our own communities. They're our neighbors, they're our coworkers, they're the people who live down the block and they're all human beings. We talk about the money and we get all caught up in the budget crisis but we're talking about people here, people that I am proud to be here to represent and say thank you to Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature for finding the funding and restoring it for this year.

It takes a whole community to end domestic violence and we're standing here today a community of Californians who are looking after some of our most vulnerable victims in this world. And I'm so proud that we have together and are finding a way to fund these valuable services and I'm just so grateful that you are all here and that the legislature and the governor have stood behind us and the many, many women and children we will serve this year.

Thank you very much.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

All right, now let's sign the bill.

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Thanks very much, governor. A pen (inaudible) -

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:

(inaudible).

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Thank you. (Laughter).

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Absolutely.

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Thank you.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

It's not over $300. We don't have to worry about it. (Laughter).

SENATOR STEINBERG:

Is that all right with you? (Laughter). You're a good man.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:

Thank you so much.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Absolutely.

Thank you for your great work.

MS. HASSETT:

Thank you governor.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you very much. (Inaudible)

MS.NAUMAN:

On your right, governor.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:

(Inaudible). (Laughter). Just you, sir.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you very much for your great work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER:

Thank you.

QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:

GOVERNOR: Are there any questions about any of this, please?

QUESTION: Governor -

GOVERNOR: We have all the experts here in domestic violence and we have Senator Steinberg here -

SENATOR STEINBERG: (Inaudible).

GOVERNOR: - who was instrumental in getting this done. And you have me here, who was instrumental in also moving it forward. So any questions about any of that?

QUESTION: Governor -

GOVERNOR: Yes.

QUESTION: - what are the plans for restoring funding on a permanent basis? Do you have some idea how this - domestic violence shelters can continue to be funded by the state?

GOVERNOR: Well, I think that we have to get creative. And as you know that we're expecting another deficit this coming year. So I think that we have already gone after the low hanging fruit and the medium hanging fruit and the higher hanging fruit but it's going to get tougher and tougher now to balance the budget.

And so - but we're going to work together. We're going to start early. We're already working on it right now. So we're going to find a creative solution to make sure that we have a permanent solution for this.

QUESTION: Governor, on the special sessions - you've called a lot of special sessions since you've been in office and on many -

GOVERNOR: I thank you for your compliment. (Laughter).

QUESTION: Well, many of them didn't produce anything and I'm wondering what you're going to be doing differently going forward into these three special sessions that you have called for the fall.

GOVERNOR: Well, as you know that you're not always going to be successful, no matter what you set out to do. This is like in sports. Many times you try to break a record and you're not going to be successful. That doesn't mean you shouldn't continue trying. And I have always been an optimist and I always will do everything that I can in order to get the job done.

And I think that you will see some great action when it comes to water. We're in a special session right now and the legislators are all working, we're negotiating, continuing to work to have a vote very soon. And the same is with education. We're in a special session on education reform. Some very, very good legislation has already been passed and I'm very proud of the legislators for that. There's quite a few bills still that we are proposing laws to change so we can be competitive with - for this $4.3 billion in education reform funding that President Obama made available. So we're going to continue pushing forward on all of those things, including when it comes to redoing our tax system.

So I think that we've got to move forward. There are certain things that are broken in the state and I think that the legislative leaders, the legislators and the governor has the responsibility to go and solve those problems. Sometimes, you know, it doesn't always work out well but other times it does. So we're going to continue pushing.

QUESTION: Governor, this state's already a billion dollars behind projections in revenues this year. Do you think the budget would need to be reopened anytime before January? You said you're already working on finding creative solutions?

GOVERNOR: Well, right now there is no reason for it because of a billion dollars. But I think one has to see big - you know, what this means. So there's a billion dollar problem now that has arisen over the last three months. So does it mean that's a billion dollars a month? I don't know. Does it mean that, you know, that the revenues are coming in more, because sometimes our revenues are coming in in such an up and down kind of a way that you really - one month doesn't say much.

So, you know, we're going to look at it very carefully and I will be communicating this to the legislative leaders and we're going to work together and look at it carefully. That's a decision like we will make together.

QUESTION: I think there's a sense it's a lot more than a billion, though, because that's just the revenues and there's other things in the budget that probably wouldn't work out. I mean, so, are you anticipating, even if you don't do it before January, there's going to be some midyear budget cuts before July that are going to have to happen?

GOVERNOR: Well, like I said, right now as I talk to you, I don't find it necessary. But it could be. But I mean, right now the big problem, as you know we have is the federal judges, because I mean we have - you know, it makes it very difficult to run the state. We have a limited amount of revenues coming in and therefore we can only spend what we have. There's a lot of cuts that we made that we hate, that we don't like. Furloughs I don't like but we have a limited amount of money.

So then you have judges coming in saying, oh, well wait a minute. You want to make cuts across the board? Well, you can't make the cuts in this program in, you know, in home services. You can't make cuts here and you, you cannot do the furloughs there and you have to spend more money on prison healthcare and you have to go and spend more money on prison building and all of those kind of things.

So that's - or they turn off the water in the valley. You know? So it's - they are going absolutely crazy. So we have to have a very serious conversation with the federal government, because they've got to let us run the state.

QUESTION: But they agree with you sometimes (inaudible).

GOVERNOR: Well, whenever they agree with me, they're right. (Applause) It's very simple. And then when they don't agree with me, they're wrong and they're interfering with our governing of the state. (Laughter) OK?

QUESTION: Governor, isn't that a sign that some of your creative solutions are, in fact, illegal under federal law or state law? And that, you know, each year you take upon these risky solutions that are done - that may only solve the problem temporarily and push the problem into the future?

GOVERNOR: Well, let me first say to you that these are very tough decisions. I mean, this state has never, ever been in this situation before. As you have heard many times, this has been the worst economic downturn - or the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. So I mean this is the reality.

I mean, to see drops in revenues by $30 billion is enormous. So then you have to make tough decisions. And every decision that we make, we run by the legal department and by the experts and well, you know, their opinion is that those things are legal. And then of course it's a question and that's when you go to a judge but a lot of the times the federal judges don't weigh the real situation of what we are faced with that we have a limited amount of money.

So if they go and say you have to restore this funding and here's the funding mechanism, this is where you can get the money from, is one thing. But just to go and say that you have to continue doing the funding, I think that's - because we can't. We can't produce money out of nothing. We're not the federal government. We can't print money. So we wish we could but I mean, that's not the way it works.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you (inaudible).

GOVERNOR: Anyway, thank you very much. Thank you.