Deukmejian Stands By Reagan on Budget : Breaks Ranks With Fellow Governors on Resolution to Switch Priorities

If he has a mind to, Gov. George Deukmejian might think about borrowing that country-western ballad “Stand By Your Man” as a campaign theme song.

The California chief executive broke ranks with a majority of his fellow governors here Tuesday and voted against a resolution calling for further cuts in defense spending and a freeze on Social Security cost-of-living increases as a means of getting the federal deficit under control.

Deukmejian said that both of these provisions in the National Governors Assn. resolution on the federal budget, as well as another element in the resolution suggesting a tax hike as a possible deficit-reducing device, run contrary to the policies of President Reagan.

Switch of Priorities

Forced to choose between his colleagues and Reagan, a fellow Republican as well as a fellow Californian, Deukmejian chose the President.

The resolution passed on a bipartisan 27-9 vote.

“The net result of this resolution,” the governor told reporters, “is going to mean that the amount of expenditure at the federal level isn’t going to be that much different than what the President has proposed. However, it substitutes the priorities that are set out in this resolution for the priorities the President has.

“The people just about 100 days ago made a choice, and they voted for the candidate who said he was going to address the deficit situation by cutting expenditures. He also said he wasn’t going to go for tax increases. And, finally, he indicated that we are to have a defense capability in this country that is second to none.

“I found that the provisions that are in the resolution passed by the governors, in effect, change those priorities and, in my view, we should give great deference to the vote of the people.”

Striking a characteristically conservative stance, Deukmejian also voted against several other resolutions that, he said, called either for additional federal spending, “which I thought was not consistent with the effort to cut the deficit,” or were inconsistent with his own policies or those of the Reagan Administration.

Among them were calls for an expansion of the federal food stamp program and an extension of a program to provide supplemental unemployment benefits beyond its current March 30 termination date.

In some cases, the governor was the lone no vote as the measures passed overwhelmingly.

He also opposed a statement the association adopted on the “indiscriminate shifting of professional sports franchises.” It urged the enactment of legislation to balance the interests of sports franchise owners with “their obligations to the states and communities in which they play.”

In California, the most notable dispute has been over the move by the Raiders of the National Football League from Oakland to Los Angeles.

But Deukmejian said the government “already is into more things than it should be.” The market, he said, “ought to be allowed to be the determining factor” in such moves, once local contracts have been fulfilled.

Aside from his votes on resolutions, the governor also asserted his independence during the three-day meeting, which brought together the nation’s 34 Democratic and 16 Republican governors, by routinely turning down network and local press requests for interviews.

In at least two cases, he rejected invitations to appear side by side with New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who, like Deukmejian, is the son of immigrant parents and a graduate of the law school at St. John’s University.

Deukmejian and Cuomo, a Democrat, debated at an American Enterprise Institute luncheon here more than a year ago, and both have been mentioned from time to time as possible opponents in a future presidential race.

“The media is fascinated by the match-up,” said Deukmejian’s press secretary, Larry Thomas.

‘Why Fuel the Flames?’

But Thomas said the governor refused the various interview requests because of a lack of time and because he did not want to contribute to any speculation about national political ambitions.

“As soon as you do those, you set off the California press saying you’re running for something else,” Thomas said. “He’s not, so why fuel the flames?”

But while Deukmejian was keeping a low profile, as he has done on most of his out-of-state trips, Cuomo was not being so reticent. He was frequently accessible to television cameras, brought along his own photographer and was outspoken on issues during the governors’ plenary sessions.

In contrast, Deukmejian sat through the sessions rarely saying a word.