Apparently time has sweetened Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s view of a bill that tightens the definition of honey for the purpose of commercial sales in California.

At a news conference in July, he blasted AB 1216 by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, as an example of wasted time and effort while hinting that perhaps it was time to return to a part-time Legislature.

“Well, it’s obviously very sad that we are in the biggest financial crisis and we are way overdue to get the budget done and we face a $26 billion deficit,” Schwarzenegger said at the time, “and I ask over and over and over the legislators upstairs to just focus on the budget and here they are, they’re debating over the definition of honey.”

Schwarzenegger also ripped bout measures to end the practice of tail docking (cutting the tails of dairy cattle) and to create a state commission to help blueberry farmers market their crop. But on Sunday, even as he vetoed dozens of bill, he signed all three.

For the record, Evans said the bill is intended to address concerns about deceptively labeled and mislabeled products and to ensure that products using other sweeteners and compounds aren’t labeled as honey.

— Jim Sweeney