Deukmejian Urges More School Funds : State of State Message Lists Budget Priorities and Paints a Proud Picture

Gov. George Deukmejian, in his fourth annual State of the State address, proposed Thursday that state government continue pumping significantly more money into public schools for increased classroom time, special education, safer buses and better teacher pensions.

In a speech to a joint session of the Legislature, televised live throughout the state, the governor also called for an all-out fight against “that ruthless killer called AIDS,” the opening of California trade offices in Tokyo and London and bipartisan support for his embattled plan to clean up toxic waste.

But the main, subliminal message Deukmejian attempted to convey to Californians was that their state is in such great shape--from the economy to the environment--that they have no real cause for ousting him from office next November when he seeks a second four-year term.

Borrowing a theme from President Reagan, who occupied the governor’s office here from 1967-1975, Deukmejian tried Thursday to instill in voters a special pride in their land and leave them with the notion that under his stewardship California is leading the nation.

“California has become again what it was and what it must always remain--America’s leadership state,” the Republican governor declared. “. . . We share the honor of living in the best state in the greatest nation in the only world we know. . . . We have brought America’s frontier back to California--we brought California back to the future.”

But unlike Reagan, Deukmejian’s speech focused primarily--as befits his style--on specifics rather than vision. Instead of expounding on his political philosophy, the governor sketched the outline of a proposed $37-billion state budget for the next fiscal year that he will formally send to the Legislature today. “Like our last three budgets, it is balanced and it contains no tax increases,” he noted with pride.

Deukmejian also again denounced the state Supreme Court for overturning the death sentences of convicted murderers. He did this in his State of the State address a year ago, too, but the harsh words Thursday took on a special significance because of the campaign he supports to vote Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird out of office.

“Since I (as a legislator) authored the death penalty law nearly a decade ago,” he said, “24,000 men, women and children have been willfully killed in our state. Juries have, by unanimous decisions, imposed the death penalty over 200 times, yet not one killer has paid the ultimate price. The California Supreme Court has seen to that.”

The governor’s State of the State message, as it has been throughout all of modern California history, was delivered in the ornate Assembly chamber, packed with lawmakers from both legislative houses and several statewide elected officials. Sitting in a front-row balcony seat were Deukmejian’s wife, Gloria, daughter, Leslie, and Chief-of-Staff Steven A. Merksamer.

It was one of the most smoothly delivered major speeches Deukmejian has given in his long political career. He was interrupted eight times by applause, primarily from Republicans--a fact the governor jokingly noted at one point.

Emotional Moment

But at the end of the address, the governor--son of Armenian immigrants--seemed to be touched by emotion and his eyes became moist as he observed: “In a world filled with bigotry and hate, where human rights are a cheap, disposable commodity, California is a celebration of humanity--living proof that diverse people can work together for the common good and treat each other with dignity and respect.”

Merksamer and all of the governor’s chief advisers felt that the most significant element of Deukmejian’s speech was his advocacy of still more money for public schools--an ambitious spending program he has been successfully pushing for the last two years.

His new budget, Deukmejian said, “completes an historic change of spending priorities in California. Three years ago, we ranked near the top in welfare dependency, but near the bottom in funding for education. Since then, we have enacted mandatory workfare (for able-bodied welfare recipients), and we made education our highest budget priority.”

Deukmejian recalled that eight years ago California’s public schools received only 44% of the money from the state’s general fund. He proposed increasing education’s allotment in the fiscal year beginning next July 1 to 55%, “the highest budget share in nearly two decades.”

Below U.S. Average

But despite this Administration’s record of having pumped substantially more money into education, according to a spokesman for state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, California last year ranked below the national average in the amount spent for each student. Nationally, it was $3,413; in California, $3,296.

Deukmejian proposed spending $17 billion for schools, plus another $700 million from the new California Lottery.

”. . . We can increase classroom time, provide $14 million to stop children from dropping out, $1.5 billion for special education, again improve the buying power of teachers’ pensions and provide $100 million to replace unsafe school buses,” he said, without elaboration.

Deukmejian actually will be proposing a smaller increase in education financing than he did last year, when he asked for an overall 10% boost. He broke it down this time to increases of 7.6% for the University of California and 7.3% each for the state university and community college systems.

School Emphasis

The governor did not specify his proposed increase for elementary and high schools. But a senior Administration official, who asked not to be identified, said his major emphasis would be on these institutions and that the boost would be around 9%.

Deukmejian also pledged to support “a major bond measure, so that we can build more schools where they are needed.”

On AIDS--acquired immune deficiency syndrome--Deukmejian promised to “fully fund” the fight. “. . . I will be preparing to propose more funds above and beyond our current commitment,” he said, as soon as the state Health Department and the University of California inform him of new steps that should be taken.

The only really new project Deukmejian proposed was a relatively minor one: the opening of foreign trade offices in Tokyo and London. He noted that 29 other states now have such offices, while California has none.

“These offices will help sell California--our exports, agriculture, tourism and investment opportunities . . . ,” he contended.

Stresses Reserve

But the governor vowed to hold the line on spending for most programs, declaring the state treasury should begin the next fiscal year with a tidy reserve equaling 3.7% of the budget. That, according to staff calculations, would come to about $1.2 billion.

The Administration’s reserve is being eaten into during the current fiscal year as the state continues to spend more money than it takes in. State Finance Director Jesse R. Huff said in an interview that the governor is determined not to outspend revenues during the next year.

In his speech, Deukmejian drew one of his loudest bursts of applause--almost totally from Republicans and some Senate Democrats--when he assailed Assembly Democrats for burying his plan for reorganizing state agencies responsible for cleaning up toxic waste.

“Last year,” he scolded, “I told you (legislators) exactly what tools I needed to get the (toxics) job done--a sweeping reorganization to make our cleanup programs tougher and more effective. . . . I’m still waiting. And I cannot withhold my deep disappointment. . . . The people are concerned about toxics and they expect action now.”

Assembly Democrats are attempting to develop their own toxics cleanup plan.

Deukmejian also proposed spending $2.8 billion in the next fiscal year for state highway projects, plus another $1 billion for local roads--part of a five-year plan to improve automobile transportation.

But Deukmejian’s main point in all this was that under his “common sense” stewardship, California state government in the last three years has “traveled from hardship to leadership . . . gone from IOU to A-OK.”

Afterward, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco said that Deukmejian’s attempts at cleaning up toxic waste represented “a failure in leadership.”

Brown also pointed out that during his first year in office Deukmejian did not aggressively back increased school financing. The Speaker added that lawmakers pushed it through only “over (the governor’s) screaming objections.”