California Senate Office of Research Releases Annual Report: “How Often Do Governors Say No?”

Last week, the Senate Office of Research (SOR) released its annual publication, “How Often Do Governors Say No?” Each year, the SOR provides a veto scorecard, whereby it tallies how often a California governor disapproves measures.

Due to COVID-19 related challenges, the Legislature greatly reduced the number of bills it considered in 2020, ostensibly to focus on COVID-19 policy response and other priority areas. In a typical year, the Legislature sends anywhere from 870 to 2,143 bills to the Governor for consideration. However, in 2020, the Legislature passed just 428 bills, making this an outlier year when comparing bill outcomes to those of past years.

Of the 428 bills Governor Newsom considered this year, he signed 372 into law and vetoed 56 bills. This is a veto rate of 13.08 percent for his second year in office. In comparison, Governor Newsom considered 1,042 bills, signing 870 into law and vetoing 172 bills in 2019 (veto rate of 16.51 percent).

The number of vetoes for 2020 is the fourth lowest of all the years reviewed in the SOR report, beginning with 1967. The three years with the lowest number of vetoed bills were under Governor Jerry Brown (1982, 1981, 1978). In 1982 he vetoed just 30 of the 1,674 bills he considered, representing a veto rate of 1.79 percent. The record for the highest percentage of bills vetoed in a year, 35.17 percent, goes to Governor Arnold Swarzenegger in 2008.

While the Legislature can override a Governor’s veto by a two-thirds vote in both houses, this action is rare and has not occurred since 1980. During the 1979-80 session, the Legislature overrode the Governor’s veto of two bills and eight items in the budget bill. Before that, the Governor’s veto had been overridden on only two occasions since 1973.

The SOR’s publication can be accessed here.