California's GOP vote-boycott ends, key bills pass

It’s about time they get the DV services in CA up and running again!  Great news!!  (Emphasis's in bold below is mine)

Squabbles -- both between and within the parties -- are set aside as senators unanimously vote to restore domestic violence funding and make it easier for localities to borrow money.

After threatening a mass veto Sunday night to spur a big water deal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reversed course and signed a surprising slate of legislation. It included bills he had vetoed in the past and measures that steered sharply away from the socially conservative Republican base he has rarely embraced. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images / September 30, 2009)

Related

• Bills signed and vetoed by the governor

•  Full coverage: State budget crisis

Reporting from Sacramento - Setting aside political squabbles, Senate Republicans lifted their blockade on several budget bills Wednesday, voting with Democrats to approve measures that restore funding cut from domestic violence shelters and help cities and counties borrow money to balance their budgets.

Republican lawmakers had refused last month to help muster the necessary two-thirds vote for two dozen pieces of legislation in a dispute over unrelated matters.
"We've resolved the issues and we're moving forward," Senate minority leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta said after Wednesday's vote.

Lawmakers said they hope to carry the new bipartisanship into negotiations over a plan to upgrade California's water system. The Senate on Wednesday gaveled in special sessions on water and tax reform.

Senators voted unanimously to approve a measure restoring $16 million cut from the budget for 94 domestic violence shelters, forcing half a dozen shelters to close and others to reduce their services.

"We have put more families at risk," Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) said of the cuts. "When shelters close down, lives are at stake."

The spat between the two parties was not the only one that affected SB3X 13. The Democratic leadership stripped Yee's authorship of the bill in a pique after Yee dissented from the Democratic majority on other budget bills.

Yee said he was putting aside his frustration with having his name removed, but complained on the Senate floor about a lack of tolerance of dissent.
"We're not in the Stone Age. We don't beat people down," Yee said.

The dispute between Republicans and Democrats cent... California's GOP vote-boycott ends, key bills pass -- latimes.com