Davis Will Sign Budget Today

Governor Gray Davis is to sign the long-delayed state budget Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The compromise $100 billion budget approved over the past week relies heavily on borrowing to keep the state government operating the next eleven months. Then the 2004 Legislature and governor will have to deal with what´s left of a projected $38 billion deficit for the past fiscal year and the current 12 months.

Davis warmed up for his reluctant signing of the budget yesterday by signing some other measures the Legislature approved.

One would grant high schoold diplomas to thousands of Japanese-Americans who did not finish public high schools after they and their families were placed in internment camps during World War Two.

Another bill signed by Davis Friday allows a judge to issue a search warrant for areas outside a judge´s county in cases of identity theft. Davis said: “The state should not act as a roadblock during an investigation – Identity theft is a time-sensitive crime where the faster the perpetrator is arrested, the more quickly the damage can be controlled.”