Sometimes when the governor flexes his aging political muscle he actually wins.
The state Legislature removed a provision that the governor said was preventing him from signing a bill that could help struggling homeowners thousands in taxes.
Last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would give a tax break to people who short-sell their homes instead of losing them to foreclosure. He said he would not sign a bill that included a provision about tax fraud penalties.
The Legislature removed the condition in the updated bill and the governor says he plans to sign it.
California is one of a handful of states that consider "forgiven debt" as taxable income. Federal law currently does not tax short sales.
Schwarzenegger said while he supports the elimination of a forgiven debt tax, the governor opposed language in the bill that would increase penalties for single tax and joint filers who make more than $10 million or $20 million in income who overstate their tax refund amounts.
California conformed with a 2007 federal tax law that did not consider forgiven debt to be taxable income. But the state law was not extended in 2009.
