$430-Million Pact on Budget Issues Is Victory for Governor

SACRAMENTO — Agreement was reached Wednesday on a compromise $430-million budget proposal to finance county trial courts and restore money for prison, health and other programs that have been caught in a political tug-of-war between Republican Gov. George Deukmejian and Democratic legislative leaders.

The agreement, reached just hours before the Legislature was scheduled to adjourn, was expected to be ratified by the Assembly and Senate later in the evening. The compromise was worked out in a 2 1/2-hour noon meeting in the Capitol attended by Deukmejian Chief of Staff Michael R. Frost and a group of legislators representing both parties.

Covering 23 state programs, the agreement represents a clear-cut victory for Deukmejian in a fight over budget dollars that began in May with the surprise discovery that state tax collections were $2 billion below projections.

As part of the compromise, Democrats agreed to drop legislation that would raise $169 million in new tax revenues by speeding up the collection of taxes. Deukmejian opposed the revenue plan, believing it would be perceived as a tax increase.

Drop Tax Plan

In a meeting Tuesday night in the office of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Frost told Democrats that if they wanted to negotiate a budget bill, they would have to drop the tax plan.

Deukmejian also was promised that Democrats would restore funding for key Administration programs that the lawmakers had cut from the $44-billion state budget. Money would be restored for the state Office of Tourism, the governor’s proposed competitive technology program, and the staff support budget of Gordon K. Van Vleck, a Deukmejian cabinet member whose office was abolished by a Democratic budget cut.

Democrats, in return, got Deukmejian’s support for increased spending on AIDS, various other health programs, and restoration of $400,000 that the governor trimmed from the Coastal Commission budget.

$206 Million for Courts

In addition, the agreement would provide $206.5 million for trial courts, more than $80 million for adult and youth correctional facilities and nearly $70 million for the state colleges system, the University of California and community colleges.

“We settled all the issues on the budget, with no escalation of taxes,” Frost said.

One of the Democratic budget negotiators, Sen. John Garamendi of Walnut Grove, said the package “is basically what the governor said he wanted.”

Garamendi said Democrats had hoped they could persuade Deukmejian to go along with their proposals to speed up the collection of taxes. “We still believe the revenue pie is too small to meet the needs of a state as large and complex as California,” Garamendi said.

To compensate for dropping the $169-million revenue measure, Deukmejian and lawmakers agreed on legislation that would generate an extra $68 million for state programs by saving interest payments on bond issues. The legislation says that interest payments now charged to the state general fund will be derived from a portion of the bond sales to be set aside for that purpose.

Reserve of $600 Million

If lawmakers agree on the full $430-million budget package, the state’s budget reserve will be reduced to about $600 million

With the midnight deadline for adjournment looming before them, staffs of legislative budget committees rushed to draft the agreement into legal language in time to be voted on before legislators go home.

In another development, lawmakers moved closer to agreement on a three-bill package to finance school construction. One of the bills, which was voted final approval in the Assembly on Wednesday, would place a $1-billion bond issue on the June, 1990, ballot.

The two other bills, which were both awaiting Senate approval, would reduce fees charged developers to help finance school construction. However, they ran into strong opposition in the Senate, leaving their fate in doubt.

Package Is Trade-Off

The package of legislation represents a trade-off between those favoring a relaxation of developer fees and school officials such as Bill Honig, state schools superintendent, who are pressing for the bond measure.

The $1-billion bond measure, if approved in 1990, would provide at least $640 million for new construction. It would make available up to $120 million for reconstruction of existing facilities, $100 million for asbestos abatement projects in schools and $90 million for emergency portable classrooms and air-conditioning equipment.

Developers would gain about $100 million in benefits by a relaxation of the fees they traditionally are charged, according to an estimate by school budget experts. The most controversial feature of the measure is a so-called “grandfather” clause that extends by one year a fee exemption for developers.

Under the legislation, developers who filed final subdivision maps by Sept. 1, 1987, would not have to pay the fees. The current cutoff date is Sept. 1, 1986.

The most significant part of the budget agreement is the plan for the state to assume most of the costs of running the trial courts.

Counties, which now pay about 90% of the costs, strongly support the plan because it would free up budget dollars to finance other county programs.

Lawmakers and court officials have been seeking the court legislation for years because it would provide a more uniform system of justice in California. Currently, court budgets vary from county to county. Most counties say they need more judges to relieve court congestion, but cannot afford to pay for them.

The court funding package was approved by a conference committee Tuesday, but on Wednesday a fight developed over an amendment tacked on at the last minute that would make it more difficult for the Los Angeles Raiders to build a new football stadium in Irwindale.

The so-called Irwindale amendment was put into the legislation by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D--Los Angeles), a strong opponent of the Raiders’ proposed move.

It would deny Irwindale a share of the financial aid that will be granted to cities under the trial court legislation.

Legislators representing Irwindale and other parts of the San Gabriel Valley said they would not vote for the court package as long as it contains the amendment.

And as the legislators headed toward a scheduled midnight adjournment of the 1988 session, they took the following final actions:

- The Assembly, by a 44-26 vote, passed and sent to the governor legislation designed to reduce by 5% a year the pollutants in California’s smoggiest urban regions.

The bill, by Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), would give new authority to state and local anti-smog agencies to regulate and control polluting fumes from such products as paints, varnishes and solvents. The legislation also would give new powers to many districts to establish “transportation control measures,” including strategies to reduce the use of cars and trucks.

- The Assembly, by a 60-6 vote, approved and sent to the governor a bill to set a statewide standard for hard-core pornography.

The bill would write into the lawbooks broader definitions of what constitutes obscene matter, obscene live conduct and harmful matter. Supporters said the bill would enable prosecutors to more easily convict pornographers.

However, it is considered less stringent than an earlier version of the bill that would have allowed individual communities to set their own obscenity standards.

- The Assembly approved and sent to the governor a bill by Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro) that would appropriate $9.4 million to the Justice Department to fight gangs. The bill was passed by a 67-3 vote.

The bill establishes an organized crime strike force in the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute crime organizations, including street gangs involved in illegal drugs.

The measure requires that $2 million be spent to form a multi-jurisdiction task force to fight gangs in Los Angeles County.

- The Assembly sent a bill to the governor to require convicted prostitutes to undergo AIDS tests. The bill, endorsed on 71-0 vote, would require anyone convicted of soliciting or engaging in an act of prostitution to undergo an AIDS test. If the test is positive, the results would be forwarded to county and state health departments.

The results would be subject to current confidentiality laws regarding AIDS reporting. If an AIDS-positive prostitute or customer was convicted of a sex crime after testing, it would be a felony.

The Assembly also sent a bill to the governor to make it easier for police officers and firefighters to receive benefits if they contract AIDS.

The bill would create a presumption that police officers or firefighters who contracted AIDS did so while performing official duties. Under the bill, by Assemblyman Paul Zeltner (R-Lakewood), public safety employees who develop AIDS would be eligible for Public Employees Retirement System benefits if they previously reported an on-the-job incident in which they might have been exposed to the AIDS virus. The bill won final passage on a vote of 41 to 19.

- The Senate passed and sent to the governor a bill allowing the removal from the voter rolls of anyone who fails to vote in four consecutive statewide elections.

The bill, by Sen. Milton Marks (D-San Francisco), would purge voter registration rolls of deadwood, allowing the state to save money by eliminating duplicate mailings of voter information.

- The Senate sent to the governor a bill that would allow involuntary AIDS testing of inmates of the California Youth Authority.

The bill, by Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino), was approved 28 to 3.