Update: August 24, 2009

Earlier this month, the Legislature’s legal adviser and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg stated that Governor Schwarzenegger’s $489 million in line-item vetoes to health and human services funding, much of which directly impacts HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs and services, unconstitutional. Focused on restoring the Governor’s cuts, Steinberg plans to personally file a lawsuit proclaiming the cuts illegal and an abuse of power.

The contention is over whether or not the Governor has a right to veto appropriations, an action which Schwarzenegger legal affairs secretary Andrea Lynn Hoch and others uphold. Also, Schwarzenegger maintains that he was forced to veto program spending since the Assembly did not approve a proposal to take local gas tax money and support an offshore oil lease.

The results of Steinberg’s lawsuit as well as the impact on the California Office of AIDS and the San Francisco Department of Public Health remain uncertain.

Read more:

Sacramento Bee: California Legislature’s lawyer calls Schwarzenegger’s vetoes illegal (August 6, 2009)

Sacramento Bee: Steinberg to sue governor over vetoes (August 8, 2009)

Press Release: ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER AND TRANSGENDER COMMUNITIES FACE HEALTH CARE CRISIS AS GOVERNOR VETOES HIV/AIDS SERVICES (August 3, 2009)

SF Gate: California could have $15 billion shortfalls (July 31, 2009)

BAR: Advocates fear spike in HIV due to CA budget cuts (July 30, 2009)

CA Progress Report: Legislators Challenge Governor Over ‘Crippling, Cascading’ AIDS Cuts (July 2009)