Schwarzenegger vetoes Calif. container fee bill

Schwarzenegger vetoes Calif. container fee bill California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill late Tuesday that sought to impose a $30-per-TEU statewide container fee on the state's three busiest ports.
   'Given the current economic downturn it is vitally important that the state does not worsen the situation by mandating added costs on business that do not provide any public benefit,' Schwarzenegger said in his veto message.
   It is the third failed attempt of a version of the bill, strongly supported by a large coalition of environmental and pro-growth interests and opposed by the shipping and logistics industry.
   In vetoing the bill, the governor praised the goal of the legislation — to raise up to $500 million a year to be split evenly between congestion relief and environmental mitigation — but found fault its planned implementation.
   'This bill does not provide necessary assurances that projects will achieve the greatest cost-effectiveness, emission reductions, and public health protection,' Schwarzenegger said.
   He said the bill, which sought to impose the container fee on cargo moving through the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland, did not provide funds for environmental mitigation to communities in California's Central Valley, despite a great deal of port container traffic moving through the valley.
   'Additionally, this bill would not provide any mechanism for the coordination and integration of infrastructure projects. As such, this bill would fail to provide long-term, strategic planning for the state's goods movement infrastructure,' he said.
   State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and author of the bill, has worked on passing the container fee plan for more than three years. This is the third version of the bill to move through the state legislature and the second time a version has passed and headed to the governor's office. Schwarzenegger vetoed Lowenthal's first version of the bill nearly four year ago.
   Lowenthal could not be reached Tuesday evening for comment on the veto.
   A statement from the Coalition for Clean Air, a bill proponent, slammed the governor for vetoing the bill.
   'It is disgusting that (Schwarzenegger) has sided with polluters over the health and well-being of those here at home,' said Martin Schlageter, campaign director at the Coalition for Clean Air.
   Due to a three-month delay in the approval of the state budget, Lowenthal's bill became one of hundreds left in legislative limbo after the governor said he would sign no bills until the Legislature sent a budget to his desk.
   Since receiving the budget 12 days ago, Schwarzenegger has been moving through the backlog of bills awaiting his review for signature. By the end of the year's signing session Tuesday night, he had signed 771 bills and vetoed 415 for all of 2008. This gives Schwarzenegger a 35 percent veto rate, the highest of any governor since the state legislature began meeting full time more than 40 years ago.
   In a press conference held Tuesday, Schwarzenegger denied he was punishing the Legislature with a high number of vetoes because of the budget battle.
   'We look at the bills in a very serious way and some bills, like I said, get vetoed and some bills will pass and I will sign,” he said. 'It’s just the normal process that we always go through.' ' Keith Higginbotham