Assembly to Vote on Its Version of New Budget

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee, after reworking Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed $34-billion-plus state budget, approved and sent to the floor an alternative proposal Wednesday that would boost spending by $642 million.

The politically loaded budget, in addition to increasing spending over what the Republican governor said he will accept, calls for cuts or the elimination of financing for the state Commission on the Status of Women and the farm labor board’s chief attorney. It would also halt dealings with firms that do business with South Africa.

It was approved by all 23 Democratic and Republican members of the committee amid proclamations of bipartisan cooperation by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), the committee chairman. There will be a vote by the full Assembly on Friday, as well as a vote in the Senate on that house’s version.

Downplays Differences

Vasconcellos called the proposed budget balanced and “fiscally and morally sound.” He played down differences with Deukmejian, saying he hopes that the spirit of bipartisan cooperation stretches all the way to the governor’s desk.

But with Deukmejian already threatening to veto the Senate version of the budget passed by the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee earlier this week, that is probably wishful thinking.

A new estimate of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $34.6 billion, up from $33.7 billion. The reason for the increase was an updated estimate Wednesday by the Department of Finance of the cost of state bonds, mostly to finance prison expansion, in fiscal 1985-86. In all, bond funds will consume more than $1 billion in the next fiscal year.

The Ways and Means-approved budget, based on different revenue assumptions than the governor’s plan, is $35.1 billion. That is about $300 million below the spending proposal approved by the Senate budget committee Monday but still substantially more than Deukmejian has said the state can afford.

Two-House Committee

Differences between the Senate and Assembly versions of the budget will be worked out by a two-house conference committee that will begin work at the end of the month.

Assemblyman Bill Baker (R-Danville), vice chairman of the committee, agreed with Vasconcellos that the budget is balanced. Baker said that an unexpected $900 million in surplus revenues that developed in May from higher than expected income tax receipts “was spent so fast it would make your head swim.” He said committee members spent “every nickel.”

Committee members rejected much of Deukmejian’s plan for spending most of the windfall to repay debts to school districts and local governments.

Instead, the committee came up with proposals to boost spending on a range of programs. Among the hundreds of augmentations, the committee added $40 million to mental health programs, earmarked $70 million for county programs for the medically indigent, budgeted an additional $88 million for child care and other programs for children and tagged $54 million to aid the homeless.

The budget also would increase spending for community colleges by $99.5 million over what the governor proposed, an increase of 13.2% compared to Deukmejian’s recommended 8%.

It would give state employes a 7.5% pay raise, compared to the proposed 6.5% called for by the governor, with the extra 1% costing the general fund $33 million.

Perhaps the committee’s most controversial actions involved proposed cuts, rather than increases.

Jumping into the issue of racial segregation and discrimination half way around the world, the committee adopted budget language that specifies that no University of California capital outlay project funds can be invested in financial institutions or securities or companies that do business with South Africa.

The budget also will be written to say that no state construction project can use a company that does business in South Africa and that no materials or supplies of companies that do business in South Africa can be used.

Women’s Commission

The document also proposes to chop $471,000 from the budget for the Commission on the Status of Women, a 67% cut. Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) recommended the cut as an outgrowth of a dispute with Republican women on the commission. Full financing is contained in the Senate version of the budget. The proposed cut is strongly opposed by Deukmejian appointees on the commission, who claim it is caused by sour grapes over growing GOP strength.

Waters recommended the controversial elimination of all but $1 from the budget of David Stirling, the general counsel of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. She and other Democrats claim that Stirling, appointed to the farm board by Deukmejian, is not enforcing the law and is ignoring legitimate grievances by farm workers by failing to clear up a backlog of cases before the board.