Sonny Perdue has been wielding his pen over the last few days:

Gov. Sonny Perdue used his veto pen Wednesday to slash about $141 million in spending and kill 41 bills passed during the legislative session.

Perdue signed the $20.2 billion budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, into law. It includes 3 percent cost-of-living raises for about 200,000 teachers and state workers, $40 million for land conservation and $19 million for the governor’s fishing tourism program called “Go Fish Georgia.”

But before doing that, he cut out $123 million in construction debt and $18 million in local projects.

Among the veto victims was the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta, a pet project of House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans). The state has spent about $7 million on the project during the past decade, but a Hall of Fame was never built.

Today was the last day for the Governor to veto any legislation. In Georgia when if the Governor fails to veto a bill within 40 days of legislature’s adjournment, it automatically becomes law. There is no pocket veto in Georgia.

While I like the idea of $141 million in vetoed spending, it didn’t come about honestly. It came about because Sonny Perdue had his feelings hurt when the House overrode his veto and when they refused to work out a compromise. It would have been nice if Perdue would actually do something out of principle for once…just once.

I hear that Perdue has also vetoed HB 91.

[UPDATE] Farris has blasted Perdue on the HB 91 veto over at Peach Pundit.

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I am singing the praises of the Georgia chapter of the American for Prosperity:

Earlier this week, we told you about a poll that showed Gov. Sonny Perdue largely undamaged by, and the Legislature taking a beating for, the budget squabble that has forced a special session.

While House Republicans have raised hell about Perdue’s veto of a $700 million budget bill, and the $142 million property tax rebate contained within, the issue hasn’t drifted much beyond the confines of the state Capitol. The public doesn’t know about it.

Jared Thomas and the Georgia chapter of Americans for Prosperity are out to change that. The anti-tax group has dropped a mailer that urges voters, in selected Republican-dominated districts across the state, to demand that their senators join House Speaker Glenn Richardson in attempting to override the governor’s veto.

The lead headline on the mailer: “When Georgia takes in more money than it needs, send it back to the taxpayers.”

A big “thank you” to my friends at the AFP for fighting the good fight.

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