Watch Out Arnold, Here Comes Ammiano

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Heather Knight
San Francico Chronicle

Supervisor Tom Ammiano is headed to the state Assembly, and the stand-up comic is clearly determined to be a big, amusing thorn in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's side.

Along with scores of renters, housing rights activists, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and other city leaders, a fired up Ammiano stood on the steps of the state building today to blast the governor for using his line item veto to eliminate $191 million in funding for low-income seniors.

At the end of every year, they receive a renters' rebate of $347, money that the governor eliminated this year as the state copes with a budget crisis.

Ammiano said he showed up at the governor's office to complain about the elimination of the decades-old program, but to no avail.

"He wasn't there - I suppose he was having his legs waxed or something," he told the crowd, adding he was taken aback by the governor's smoking tent, set up outside his office to get around the state's smoking ban and decorated in a jungle theme. He said the governor smokes cigars in there that probably cost as much as the $347 rebate.

"He lives in that tent like it's a bubble," Ammiano said, adding the governor seems to think all Californians are healthy, young and have a trust fund. "Wake up, Arnold, that ain't the truth. You may be a movie star and you may be an action hero, but we're going to kick your ass on this one!"

Ammiano says the vehicle license fee should be reinstated instead of money being taken from the poor.

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