February 26th, 2004

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER AND BUFFETT IN NEW YORK FOR PROPS 57 AND 58

NEW YORK - On Wednesday, February 25th, 2004, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Warren Buffett met with over twenty Wall Street executives at a luncheon in New York regarding the $15 billion bond offering they feel will greatly help California's budget, now and for the future.

As the March 2nd vote approaches, polls show voters supporting the measure.

"I want to thank all the Wall Street bond experts," Schwarzenegger said. "This meeting is very important."

Confident the bond would pass in Tuesday's election, Gov. Schwarzenegger stated to the excutives,"this is where you come in..." and asked them for their continued support of the state. "After the election is over we need you to look at our situation and help us the way you've supported California in the past -- the way you continue support the state."

Schwarzenegger talked about how friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett settled the issue of how many years the $15 billion bond should be spread over.

During a meeting of California legislature leaders, the discussion had come up about "whether the bond offering should stretch out to only seven years, or to 15 or 20 years", Arnold said.

"And I said, 'Guys, I have somebody who may be a better expert than we all are,' and I just pressed the button and there was Warren Buffett on the phone," Schwarzenegger told the group.

"He explained in five minutes why it was better to have a 15 year bond rather than a seven year bond, and he cleared up the whole thing," Schwarzenegger said.

As Buffett addressed the group, he likened Schwarzenegger's first 100 days in office to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first days as president in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression".

"California had all the ingredients for greatness," said Buffett, "it has always been great but it lacked leadership. People couldn't work together, they had lost faith in themselves, they had lost faith in their politicians and Arnold came in 100 days ago and effectively, bold, took action, knew where he wanted to lead the state. People in California started to believe in themselves again and believe in their state again."

Buffett added, "(Arnold) has done at the state level what Franklin D Roosevelt did at the federal level 73 years ago and I am delighted to be of any help to him and he's got my 800 number, he's only used it once now but he's entitled to more."

"The most important thing (Arnold) has done is he has brought people together, he's got people working together that were trying to cause each other trouble six months ago, three months ago .... Arnold has that technique that he gets it done." Buffet added.

When asked if he had an alternative plan if the March 2nd ballot initiative failed, Schwarzenegger replied: "We are only thinking about victory. Failure is not an option."

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