ALRB Money Reinstated in Senate Panel’s Budget Vote

The Senate Budget Committee voted Monday to fully restore money stripped earlier for operations of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and then approved a proposed state budget of $37.5 billion for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

The committee’s version of the budget called for spending $270 million more than requested by Gov. George Deukmejian and included increases for such programs as education and AIDS research and treatment.

Scheduled for a vote in the full Senate on Friday, the proposed budget must be reconciled with the Assembly’s version in a two-house conference committee that is expected to begin meeting next week. The Assembly, likewise, plans to vote on its plan Friday.

By a vote of 7 to 3, the full Senate committee reversed the action of one of its subcommittees, which last month had eliminated the entire $8.7 million Deukmejian had proposed for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Bias on Panel Charged

The board was created under former Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. to oversee union representation elections and resolve labor disputes between growers and farm workers. For years, the board drew criticism from Republicans and growers for an alleged pro-labor bias. But since Deukmejian appointees have become the majority, the board has increasingly come under fire from Democrats for allegedly favoring growers over laborers.

Despite the changes in the board in recent years, several of the committee’s Democrats, saying that eliminating the board would harm farm workers, joined the Republicans in voting to provide a full budget.

“The idea of it being wiped out to zilch, to zero, doesn’t help the people in the fields one iota,” said Democratic Sen. Walter Stiern of Bakersfield.

David Stirling, the board’s general counsel, expressed relief at the Senate committee’s decision, saying “It’s a long ways ahead of where we were before the meeting.”

But he acknowledged that the board still faces a fight in the Assembly, where Democratic legislators have signaled their intention to cut the board’s work force by half, to 72 employees, and to eliminate Stirling’s salary.

The Senate budget would add about $200 million in health and welfare spending above what Deukmejian requested, including nearly doubling the governor’s proposed budget for research and treatment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome from $24 million to $47.4 million. The Senate committee also voted to increase spending on education programs by $100 million. The Senate increases were partly offset by small reductions in a variety of programs.

The governor initially proposed a $36.7-billion budget with a reserve of nearly $1.2 billion that would be set aside for unforeseen emergencies. Since then, he has proposed spending an additional $560 million in the next fiscal period.

The Senate version puts the additional $270 million on top of that, but keeps the proposed budget at $37.5 billion by setting aside just $400 million as a reserve.

While calling for approval of the Senate plan, committee chairman Sen. Alfred Alquist (D-San Jose) said a $400-million reserve was “not acceptable” and said it should be raised back up to $1 billion as budget deliberations continue.